Antonio Tiberi and Trek-Segafredo have parted ways after the young Italian rider served a suspension imposed by the team following his sanction by the courts in San Marino for killing a cat.
In a statement this afternoon, the team said it was parting ways with Tiberi - who won the final stage at Tour de Hongrie last year and is the former world junior TT champion - after his actions while suspended did not meet with the team's expectations of him.
In February Tiberi was fined for shooting dead a politician’s cat in the principality of Sam Marino. His Trek-Segafredo team said at the time it knew nothing of Tiberi’s “transgression” until media reports emerged about him being sanctioned. It condemned the “reprehensible” act and suspended the 21-year-old without pay for at least 20 days.
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Tiberi issued an apology at the time, saying he would be "donating all of my prize money this season to animal welfare organisations in San Marino", adding he would be "volunteering my time to helping those organisations in person".
However, some two months to the day it emerged the team had suspended him, Trek-Segafredo released a statement confirming the Italian was no longer one of its riders, by mutual consent.
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"Trek-Segafredo and Antonio Tiberi have mutually agreed to part ways, effective immediately, after the rider’s actions during his suspension did not meet our criteria for a return to competition. No further comments will be given at this time," the team said.
After being penalised by a court in February, Tiberi issued a statement apologising for shooting the animal dead - last June. His statement came just hours after his offence emerged publicly in newspaper reports in Italy.
He was fined €4,000 and told the judge while he took aim at the cat, as he tested an air rifle, he did not think it would kill the animal or even hit it. He was “surprised” when the animal was hit – being killed instantly from a head wound as its owner, a San Marino politician, looked on.
Tiberi (21) was firing the gun from the window of his San Marino home last June, first hitting a road sign. He said he then aimed at the cat only “to measure the shooting capacity of the weapon” but with “no intention" of killing the animal.
Tiberi, who finished 7th overall at UAE Tour this year and 8th overall at Tour Down Under, said in his February statement he “deeply regrets” his “shameful actions”. He said he had done “something tremendously stupid and irresponsible” adding “the seriousness and danger” of his actions only occurred to him “after the act”.
