Former professional and Under 23 World Road Race champion Dmytro Grabovskyy has died after suffering a heart attack according to a report on Sporza.
The 31 year-old Ukrainian turned professional in 2007 but had limited success in what was a difficult career.
In 2006, he captured the European TT Championship and a stage and overall at the Giro delle Regioni. Later that season, he raced as a stagiaire for Quickstep-Innergetic before signing a two-year contract for the 2007 and 2008 seasons.
He never really lived up to his potential though and amongst his best results with the Belgian team were top tens in stages of the Tour of Austria and Tour de l’Ain in 2007 and 5th place in Firenze – Pistoia in 2008.
In 2009, he signed for the ISD Cycling Team where he raced for three years. He showed brief glimpses of possibly returning to form as he won the mountains classification at Tirreno-Adriatico in 2010 and claimed a fifth place in a stage of the Giro d’Italia in 2009.
However, Grabovsky was struggling with alcoholism. He told La Gazzetta Dello Sport that during his time with Quick Step, he “was bored and went after training to the coast to party and to drink. I twice escaped death by alcohol poisoning. But I drank vodka and never used drugs.”
Grabovsky later moved to Israel and in 2015, he made a comeback racing mainly in Eastern Europe, but never reached the level he had promised during his amateur years.
Mmmmmm