Winning the final stage of the Tour of the Gila in 2009 ahead of Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer when all three pulled away from the rest of the field.
A US former professional cyclist serving a lifetime drugs ban for multiple violations has lost his arm in a training ride crash.
Phil Zajicek was in collision with a truck in Boulder, Colorado, on Tuesday and such was the impact that he severed his arm.
He was taken to hospital from the scene and has undergone surgery to save his life.
The 36-year-old was with a group of up to eight cyclists when they were descending a hill at Flagstaff and Zajicek hit a flatbed truck travelling in the opposite direction.
The cyclists were riding fast at the time and Zajicek appears to have crossed the white line, veering into the truck’s path and hitting the flatbed metal section of it, losing his arm on impact.
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The driver of the truck stopped and was still at the scene when the emergency services arrived.
Zajicek was wearing a helmet at the time, according to police spokespersons quoted in US press reports, and he is expected to survive.
He turned professional in 2000 and is one of the few cyclists banned from competing for life.
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That ban was imposed five years ago when, having failed a 2005 drugs test, he pleaded no contest to a second violation relating to purchasing, possessing and using EPO and human growth hormone.
He also pleaded no contest to a third offence of supplying misleading information to the American Arbitration Association, with presides over civil disagreements but is not a court of law.
Zajicek also encouraged others to provide false testimony in a bid to cover up his own violations.
He rode for a number of teams during his pro career; Mercury Cycling, Saturn Cycling, Navigators Insurance, Health Net and Fly V Australia.
He is a former US junior national champion and rode for the US team at the World Road Championships in Madrid in 2005.
He also raced extensively in Europe in events such as the Midi Libre, Biciclista Vasca, Classique des Alpes, Dauphine Libre, Route du Sud, GP Plouay, and the Tour de L’avenir.
In 2004 he won the Tour of Qinghai Lake overall and in 2009 he won the queen stage of the Tour of the Gila, beating dopers Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer when all three pulled away from the rest of the field.
He tested positive for cathine (norpseudoephedrine) when winning the Tour of Qinghai Lake in 2004 and while he was stripped of his win and fined he was not suspended.
He claimed at the time he had done nothing wrong and had taken a supplement that metabolised into a banned substance in his body; USADA agreeing that cathine was the metabolite of legal supplement.
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