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Phil Zajicek (licensed CC BY- ND 2.0 on Flickr by Frank Steele).jpgLife ban ex-pro loses arm in collision with lorry
A former professional cyclist now serving a lifetime ban from the sport for doping has lost an arm after being involved in a collision with a lorry as he rode down a descent near Boulder, Colorado.
The crash happened on Flagstaff Road on Tuesday afternoon as Phil Zajicek, aged 36, rode in a group of between six and eight cyclists travelling at a “high rate of speed,” according to Corporal Shawn Wycoff of the Colorado State Patrol.
He added that it had not yet been established whether the lorry or Zajicek had crossed the centre line of the road when the rider’s arm was severed by the truck’s flatbed, reports the Daily Camera.
Zajicek was said to be in a serious condition in hospital, although he is expected to survive.
During his professional career, the Oregon native rode for teams including Mercury, Saturn and Fly V Australia.
In 2005, when he was with Navigators Insurance, he finished fourth overall at the Tour of Britain.
The United States Anti-Doping Agency banned him for life in 2011 after he failed an anti-doping control and admitted other offences including purchasing EPO.
He was stripped him of all results obtained since 24 April 2007 including his victory on the queen stage of the 2009 Tour of the Gila, the last of the race.
That day, he beat Levi Leipheimer and Lance Armstrong – then preparing for his comeback Tour de France with Astana – in the finale, securing third place overall behind them.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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10 comments
Horrible accident. Whatever his sins (and perfectly reasonable for road.cc to mention prominently for context) no-one deserves something like that. Hope he makes a full recovery.
It would have been enough to have finished at 24 April 2007. The final paragraph in particular appears to be nothing more than an attempt to ensure that two other, better known dopers were name checked.
Good luck Phil, no one deserves to lose an arm doing something as simple as riding a bike.
This is possibly the absolute nadir of journalism, from a site that has been plumbing the depths for quite some time.
Simon MacMichael, a person has lost their arm in an accident. The former doping infractions have absolutely no bearing on that at all. I have absolute contempt for you.
Road.cc, you have lost another reader.
Seems like a fair assessment of the collision and the most relevant points of his professional career. Please point out the prejudical comments. Or are you reading between the lines? Well you have left now anyway, no need to reply. Byee.
hmmm. Have thought carefully about this, and I think there are worst examples of journalism out there. I personally think that North Korean news is regularly worse. There was also that innacurate reporting of the prisoner abuse hoax that led to Piers Morgan being sacked as Editor of the Daily Mirror. Or perhaps The Sun's terrible reporting of the Hillsborough tragedy.
That said, I completely respect your opinion to hold such a different view.
I am going in riding in Colorado in four weeks.
Time to get out for a ride, I think.
The doping is relevant to why the article is even here. It's here because people who knew him as a racer would want to know a) it happened and b) that he's going to survive.
For those of us who *didn't* know him as a racer, it's background.
No-one's suggesting he lost it because he doped.
Interested by your last comment about road.cc having lost another reader. Am I the only one left now? If anyone else is reading this I was interested to see from basic web analysis says that readership (sic) has grown from about 100k last year to 185k now, from the UK alone. So this means each reader leaving has been replaced by nearly 2.
Road.cc, you have gained another read....oh, and another...oh, dear, you just lost one...but it's OK......here's another two......
Analytics is fun.
Like cycling.
And weak extrapolation.
I can't agree. It was neutral and stated the central points:
1. why would we know this person?
2. what happened to him
Best wishes to Mr. Zajicek. He sounds like a tough guy. I'm sure he'll be back on a bike.
Zaj crossed the middle line, says the Camera now (great name for a newspaper btw!).
I quite like how civil they are, mentioning the drug stuff in last paragraph like ancient news context, rather than clickbait screaming it in the first words of the headline like road.cc.
Ouch! Jesus H, ewwyuck. All the best to the lad mind, but that's horrible. How dangerous is that flatbed regardless of the speed?