90s sprint star Abdoujaparov claims career ending positive test was a set up: 'They did everything to exclude me'

More than twenty-five years after his final race, Abdoujaparov insists his exit from cycling cannot be explained by one positive test alone.

Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Abdoujaparov revisits the final chapter of his career with unusual openness. Now living in Italy, he describes a gradual process of exclusion during his last season in 1997, despite still feeling competitive and motivated. “I had a good contract,” he says. “One sporting director did not want me. He did everything to exclude me and they stopped paying me.”

Abdoujaparov believes the doping suspension that followed has long been used as a convenient explanation, masking what he thinks was already a decision taken behind closed doors. “They did everything to exclude me,” he says.

The former sprinter insists the positive test itself remains deeply suspicious. “Once, a masseur gave me a product that I took without thinking,” Abdoujaparov says. “I tested positive, but the team found out one day before it became official. Strange.”

When he tried to get answers, he claims the person had vanished. “I asked where he was, I wanted to know more,” he says. “But he had disappeared.”

Long before the suspension, Abdoujaparov had already built a reputation as one of the most feared sprinters of the 1990s. Nicknamed the Terror of Tashkent, his aggressive style divided opinion. He firmly rejects the idea that he was ever reckless or unfair.

“I have never made anyone crash because of me. I have never been unfair,” he says.

That mindset also shaped how he raced and how he views sprinting today. “Now everyone has a train. A sprinter like me does not exist anymore,” Abdoujaparov says. “I did everything myself. Even [Mario] Cipollini had a train back then. I never did.”

Even the infamous crash on the final stage of the 1991 Tour de France is reinterpreted by Abdoujaparov. “They left the barrier open for the passage, moved about a metre, where the team cars and police vehicles went through,” he says. “I hit it full on. The Coca-Cola bin has nothing to do with it.”

His palmarès remains formidable. Nine Tour de France stage wins, seven at the Vuelta, one at the Giro and the rare double of winning the points classification at both the Giro and the Tour in 1994. His limited Giro stage success, he explains, was down to allergies. “Pollen allergy. During the Giro period, I always struggled to breathe,” he says.

Today, Abdoujaparov leads a quiet life, riding his mountain bike and following cycling from a distance. “I like a simple life,” he says. “I am happy with what I have.”