Bahrain Victorious pro slammed for ‘liking’ post joking about fatal cat shooting – but team say rider doesn’t use social media account and “didn’t notice” tweet

Antonio Tiberi, the promising Italian rider who “parted ways” with Lidl-Trek last year after shooting and killing a cat belonging to Federico Pedini Amati, the former head of state and current Minister of Tourism for San Marino, has once again come under fire on social media for allegedly ‘liking’ a post jokingly linking the incident to Movistar’s signing of young British pro Cat Ferguson.

However, Tiberi’s Bahrain Victorious team say that 22-year-old no longer uses the social media account which liked the tweet and that he “didn’t notice” the joke in the first place, emphasising that the squad is committed to ensuring the Italian’s “long-term success, both on and off the bike”.

Last February, we reported that Tiberi, who won the junior time trial event at the UCI world championships in Harrogate in 2019, had appeared in court and been fined €4,000 for shooting and killing the pet of a political figure in San Marino with an air rifle.

The pet had been adopted by Pedini Amati, the politician who served as Captain Regent, one of the landlocked country’s joint heads of state that are elected every six months, between 1 April 2008 and October 2008, and who is now a minister.

> Bahrain Victorious announce signing of Italian pro who shot and killed cat belonging to San Marino's former head of state

At the time, his Lidl-Trek team (then known as Trek-Segafredo) described Tiberi’s actions as “reprehensible” and announced he would be suspended without pay for a minimum of 20 days, with his suspended salary donated to an animal protection organisation.

In late April, Trek announced 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 did not remain without a team for long, however, and in June Bahrain Victorious announced that the Italian had signed with the squad until the end of 2025 in a statement that only vaguely referred to the 22-year-old’s “past mistakes” and his interrupted 2023 season.

However, the consequences and lingering reputational damage of those past mistakes continue to haunt Tiberi, it seems, after it was flagged on social media this week that the Italian had liked a post on X (formerly Twitter) appearing to joke about his fatal shooting of Pedini Amati’s pet.

On Thursday, the morning after Tiberi finished third behind Tadej Pogačar and Mikel Landa on the Port Ainé summit finish of the Volta a Catalunya (his first ever WorldTour podium), cycling fan Thomas Harvey posted that the Bahrain Victorious rider had liked a post – dating from September 2023 – responding to Movistar’s signing of 17-year-old British rider Cat Ferguson and featuring an image of an army sniper.

The ‘like’ – one of only 11 posts liked by Tiberi on the social media platform – came from an account that was certainly operated by Tiberi at one point, and up to and including this week has been used by Bahrain Victorious to tag the rider in posts concerning race results and squad announcements.

🇪🇸 #VoltaCatalunya103

🥉 3rd 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 fans dismissed the alleged ‘like’ as nothing more than a joke, others described it as “shameless” and evidence that “he feels no remorse for his actions”.

However, when approached by road.cc, Bahrain Victorious stated that Tiberi had no knowledge of the tweet in question and that he no longer uses his X account, which he was not “directly managing” at the time of the alleged ‘like’.

“We checked with Antonio after the finish of the stage in Catalunya,” a Bahrain Victorious spokesperson told road.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.