Rider had twice served suspensions for cocaine use, returned to take four wins in 2013
Last January he roared back into the headlines when he outsprinted Peter Sagan to win the final stage of the Tour de San Luis, successfully returning from battles with cocaine addiction. However a year later his Androni Venezuela team has announced that it and the rider are parting ways, partly due to what is termed personal reasons.
“The rider Mattia Gavazzi and Androni – Venezuela team have consensually resolved the employment relationship for the current season,” said the Italian-registered squad in an announcement.
“At the end of a meeting attended by the rider – assisted by Attorney Giuseppe Rivolta – and the team manager Gianni Savio, the Chief Executive Officer Marco Sannino and the Sport Director Giovanni Ellena, Mattia Gavazzi has requested and obtained the rescission of the contract ‘for personal reasons and technical differences with the team.’
It did not elaborate on those reasons and differences, but thanked him for the wins he achieved with the squad and wished him future success.
On April 21st 2010 the UCI announced that the-then Colnago CSF Inox rider had tested positive for cocaine after a doping test carried out during the Settimana Lombarda on March 31st of that year.
He had finished second to Francesco Chicci (Liquigas-Doimo) on stage 1a of the race.
Gavazzi had previously used the drug as a junior rider and had already tested positive in 2004. He served a fourteen month ban and completed a rehabilitation plan.
Responding to his second incident with the drug and sporting laws, he told La Gazzetta dello Sport in 2010 that a part of him was glad it had happened. “The positive set me free in a way,” he stated in June. “I was telling all sorts of lies. All the mistakes were my fault, no one forced me to use it, even if in my area it is easy to meet the wrong people.”
He was subsequently handed a two and a half year suspension, but seemed to be back on track when he beat Sagan to that victory on January 27th last year.
He also won the Giro della Toscana in April, took fifth on a stage of the Giro d’Italia in May and notched up stage wins in both the Sibiu Cycling Tour and the Vuelta a Venezuela.
The Italian is the son of former professional cyclist Pierino Gavazzi, who won Milan-Sanremo in 1980.
Contacted by VeloNation, the Androni – Venezuela team said that it was unable to say what Gavazzi’s next plans are. “All we know is that he has stopped his contract with the team…it is a personal decision,” said a spokesperson.
It is consequently unclear if he will remain in the sport.