Antonio Tiberi, the promising Italian rider who “parted ways” with Lidl-Trek final 12 months after taking pictures and killing a cat belonging to Federico Pedini Amati, the previous head of state and present Minister of Tourism for San Marino, has as soon as once more come beneath fireplace on social media for allegedly ‘liking’ a submit jokingly linking the incident to Movistar’s signing of young British professional Cat Ferguson.
However, Tiberi’s Bahrain Victorious group say that 22-year-old now not makes use of the social media account which favored the tweet and that he “didn’t notice” the joke within the first place, emphasising that the squad is dedicated to making sure the Italian’s “long-term success, both on and off the bike”.
Last February, we reported that Tiberi, who received the junior time trial occasion on the UCI world championships in Harrogate in 2019, had appeared in court docket and been fined €4,000 for taking pictures and killing the pet of a political determine in San Marino with an air rifle.
The pet had been adopted by Pedini Amati, the politician who served as Captain Regent, one of many landlocked nation’s joint heads of state which are elected each six months, between 1 April 2008 and October 2008, and who’s now a minister.
> Bahrain Victorious announce signing of Italian professional who shot and killed cat belonging to San Marino’s former head of state
At the time, his Lidl-Trek group (then often known as Trek-Segafredo) described Tiberi’s actions as “reprehensible” and introduced he could be suspended with out pay for no less than 20 days, together with his suspended wage donated to an animal safety organisation.
In late April, Trek introduced that it had “mutually agreed to part ways” with their rider, noting that his “actions during his suspension did not meet our criteria for a return to competition”.
Tiberi didn’t stay with no group for lengthy, nonetheless, and in June Bahrain Victorious introduced that the Italian had signed with the squad till the top of 2025 in a press release that solely vaguely referred to the 22-year-old’s “past mistakes” and his interrupted 2023 season.
However, the results and lingering reputational injury of these previous errors proceed to hang-out Tiberi, it appears, after it was flagged on social media this week that the Italian had favored a submit on X (previously Twitter) showing to joke about his deadly taking pictures of Pedini Amati’s pet.
On Thursday, the morning after Tiberi completed third behind Tadej Pogačar and Mikel Landa on the Port Ainé summit end of the Volta a Catalunya (his first ever WorldTour podium), biking fan Thomas Harvey posted that the Bahrain Victorious rider had favored a submit – courting from September 2023 – responding to Movistar’s signing of 17-year-old British rider Cat Ferguson and that includes a picture of a military sniper.
The ‘like’ – considered one of solely 11 posts favored by Tiberi on the social media platform – got here from an account that was actually operated by Tiberi at one level, and as much as and together with this week has been utilized by Bahrain Victorious to tag the rider in posts regarding race outcomes and squad bulletins.
🥉 third for @AntonioTiberi4 and 4th for @WoutPoels on demanding stage 3 @VoltaCatalunya
👏👏👏#RideAsOne #rideforGino pic.twitter.com/ytEfvW5E7V
— Team Bahrain Victorious (@BHRVictorious) March 20, 2024
While some followers dismissed the alleged ‘like’ as nothing greater than a joke, others described it as “shameless” and proof that “he feels no remorse for his actions”.
However, when approached by highway.cc, Bahrain Victorious acknowledged that Tiberi had no information of the tweet in query and that he now not makes use of his X account, which he was not “directly managing” on the time of the alleged ‘like’.
“We checked with Antonio after the finish of the stage in Catalunya,” a Bahrain Victorious spokesperson instructed highway.cc.
“He was not directly managing his X account. He had already asked for his account to be deactivated as he doesn’t use it, and as you can see, nothing has been published for several months. He didn’t open the ‘Likes’ section, therefore he didn’t notice the content you are referring to.”
The spokesperson continued: “Our position as a team is the case as it was when we signed him. We value his personal growth and education, and as we stated, our aim is to help him on a path to long-term success both on and off the bike, with our focus on discipline, character building, and guidance.”
Tiberi’s Twitter account has since been deleted.
