Djamolidine Abdoujaparov

Djamolidine Mirgarifanovich Abdoujaparov was born on 28 February 1964 in Tashkent, into a Crimean Tatar family that had been deported to Uzbekistan in the Soviet era. A road-racing sprinter, he was nicknamed «The Tashkent Express» and «The Tashkent Terror».

Raised in the Soviet sports system, he won the points classification and a stage of the Tour de l'Avenir in 1985 and took several Peace Race stages. In 1987 he became USSR road-race champion, and at the 1988 Seoul Olympics he finished fifth in the road race for the Soviet Union.

He turned professional in 1990 and rode for Alfa Lum (1990), Carrera Jeans–Tassoni (1991–1992), Lampre–Polti (1993), Polti–Vaporetto (1994), Novell–Decca–Colnago (1995), Refin–Mobilvetta (1996) and Lotto–Mobistar–Isoglass (1997). In 1991 he won Gent–Wevelgem and the Giro del Piemonte; that year he crashed on the Champs-Élysées stage of the Tour de France, finished the stage on foot with help and still took the points classification.

He won the Tour de France points classification in 1991, 1993 and 1994 and nine Tour stages between 1991 and 1996. At the Vuelta a España he won the points classification in 1992 and seven stages (1992–1993); at the 1994 Giro d'Italia he won the points and Intergiro classifications and a stage. He is counted among the few riders to have won the points classification in all three Grand Tours.

At the 1996 Olympics he rode the road race for Uzbekistan (the country was not then a member of the UCI, which complicated his entry to world championships). In 1997 he retired. He was named Honoured Master of Sport of Russia in 2007. The British rock band Abdoujaparov is named after him.