There will always be a stigma attached to Antonio Tiberi, a reputation he will forever be attempting to improve. No matter what he goes on to achieve in cycling and in life, for many he will always be known as the rider who accidentally shot dead a politician’s cat when he was 21. “Going forward from this bullshit that I did was not easy,” a candid Tiberi tells Rouleur.
The regretful episode happened in early 2023 in his adopted home of San Marino. He was testing an air rifle at the time, not believing that it was a lethal weapon. To his horror, it was. Trek-Segafredo suspended him and then sacked him, and the local courts fined him €4,000. “It especially wasn’t easy in the first few months when I was receiving messages and everything. That was the worst period for me,” he goes on. “I just focused and wanted to be myself, to show the world who I really am, and do what I know how to do best on the bike.”
So who really is Tiberi? In the immediate aftermath of the incident he appeared on national television visiting a cat shelter with his tearful father. It was his way of demonstrating his remorse to an outraged public. The 24-year-old sitting across from me in his Bahrain Victorious sweater is polite, courteous, even a bit shy. He speaks in excellent English, too, a product of his upbringing. “I tried to, not explain, but to show to the world that what happened was just a mistake and a bullshit [decision] of a 21-year-old guy,” he continues. “I am also growing up and I feel inside that every year that passes I become more and more mature.”
Gradually – though he accepts he’ll never win everyone over – Tiberi, now 24, is improving his public profile. He won the best young rider’s classification and was fifth on debut at the 2024 Giro d’Italia, and finished on the podium of two WorldTour stage races last year – Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of Poland. In 2026 he will take to the biggest stage of all: the Tour de France. The 21-year-old who made a “bullshit” decision is now one of Italy’s leading GC riders.
Tiberi finished on the podium at his maiden Giro in 2024. Image: Zac Williams/SWPix.com.
To reduce Tiberi to one single act of criminal foolery is to ignore the breadth of cycling talent he has at his disposal. He’s an excellent climber, a strong time triallist (he was junior world time trial champion in 2019) and consistent. Performing at the 2024 Giro – “my best period so far,” he says – was a crucial step in his rehabilitation; for the first meaningful time, he connected positively with his own people. “That was a really important part for me in that Giro,” he remembers.
“I really like the Giro d’Italia a lot and this was my first time there with all the Italian fans, sometimes with friends and family, and it was a really special moment for me. One of the best sensations I had. Having friends always there for you when you are on the climb, on your limit, going full gas… I remember one time a friend came running beside me. It was really nice, a really beautiful sensation. And it helped me a lot.”
Ever since he was eight-years-old when he took part in his first bike race, Tiberi has wanted to be a professional cyclist. He was raised 75km south-east of Rome, so the Giro and Tirreno-Adriatico would often pass. “When I was young my dad and I would always go on the bike for fun, and in the month of the Giro we’d go to watch it,” he recalls. “It was always something magical, going to see your heroes. It is something special when you’re a child. This is what gave me the ambition and dream to become one of these riders who races the Giro d’Italia.”
Striving to win the maglia rosa has always been his goal. “The dream is to win the Giro d’Italia,” he states. “Something that is realistic is more than one podium in the Giro. That would be super, super nice for me. The Giro is a bit more open and in 2024, if it wasn’t for a puncture on the third stage, I maybe could have been on the podium. That was a really special month. If I think about arriving to one condition, one performance [from before], it’s how I was in this Giro. I felt super, super good on and off the bike. We will see if from here to 10 years I can achieve my objective.”
Junior world champion in Harrogate in 2019. Image: Simon Wilkinson/SWPix.com.
He will not do so in 2026, though. Next season, Tiberi will take a break from the Giro and head to the Tour de France for the first time, where he’ll be co-leader alongside Lenny Martinez. “I have tried the Giro and the Vuelta a España and I think the Giro fits better for me. But many people say to me that the Tour is even better for me – its parcours and how it’s raced,” he says. “I’m curious what I can do there.”
It is planned that he will do six stage races before the Tour, including Tirreno and the Tour Auverge-Rhône-Alpes (the new name for the Critérium du Dauphiné). Plenty of time, then, to sharpen his form. But a warning from him: “It’s my first Tour de France, and from what I’ve heard it’s the hardest race in the calendar, so I’m going there mostly to learn how it works and how it is from the inside,” he says. “Then when I am there, hopefully with a super nice shape, if I feel on some occasions that I can do something good I will do my best, but I am not going there with an ambition of a top-5 or top-10.”
Those sort of objectives will come further down the line. Tiberi’s first priority is to rediscover the legs he had in 2024. “Last year was a bit strange,” he assesses. “I was always chasing good condition. In some periods I was going well, but in others I had sickness or crashes and I didn’t always realise my performances. This has helped me a lot to start this new season with more moral, more grinta, and more motivation.”
Letting his cycling do the talking holds more weight for Tiberi than it does for most of his other competitors. “For sure it was not easy at the beginning [after the cat incident], but over the months and years everything became better and better until now when I can say finally I feel like this is something that I have put behind my back,” he says. “It’s still there, but I am looking forward to always doing better and doing good things and showing who I really am.”
Cover image: Zac Williams/SWPix.com.
