Former under 23 world champion Dmytro Grabovskyy has died after suffering a heart attack.
The 31-year-old Ukrainian showed his talent for the first time in 2005, when he won the U23 World Championships Road Race in Madrid and finished second in the U23 time trial. In 2006, he raced as a stagiaire for Quick-Step before signing a two-year contract for the 2007 and 2008 seasons.
He never really lived up to his potential though and in 2009, he signed for the ISD 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.
Grabovsky spoke out about his battle with alcohol during his time with Quick-Step: “I 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.”
In 2011 he decided to put an end to his career to deal with the problems of his personal life. He moved to Israel, where he received the nationality and made it his home until the day of his death.
