craig1985 said:
I was reading an interview with him a couple of years ago (or it was last year IIRC) and he said the biggest problem for him was that at his cycling/sports school (I think sports school is more accurate, right?) where he would train in the morning, do schoolwork, and then hit the rollers later, every single day, so when he moved to Italy to race as a u-23, and later when he turned pro for Quick Step he would train in the morning, and come home and be completely bored because he is so used to training so much as a junior, but doesn't need to do that as a pro.
True.
As Grabovskyy says himself his problems started immediately after he came to QuickStep in 2007 (in fact he was signed at the end of 2006 but since that moment and till the end of season the only races he participated in were the Worlds in Salzburg). So, after just two days in Belgium he was involved in a car accident and injured his back, which cost him a season. Then in 2008, as he says, he was scheduled for RVV and PR but in the end was replaced and then after Dauphine he was promised the Tour participation, but wasn't taken to France which made him very upset once more.
You're right, being in a sport school he used to train twice a day and when he turned profesional he obtained loads of free time so taking into account his constant disappointment he started drinking.
His problems continued in 2009 when Dmytro signed with ISD–Neri where had tensions with Giovanni Visconti. Interesting story btw: as he says in interview it has started after Benevento stage (#18) of Giro. It was a stage for a breakaway and the huge break included both Grabovskyy and Visconti as well as Dmytro's training partner Yaroslav Popovych. Grabovskyy asked his directeur sportif Luca Scinto permission for going into attack with Popovych and Scinto had nothing against it (tbh this decision looks weird having Visconti in the group), but Scinto probably shared this information with Visconti, who had an eye to this stage too. Visconti decided to mark Popovych but recognizing that he is heavily marked and not wanting to hinder a friend Yaroslav didn't follow the move (so didn’t Visconti) but Scarponi, Devenyns, Gavazzi and several other riders joined the attack which led to Scarponi's second stage win at that Giro.
Year after he solved his alcohol problems and was given a second chance in ISD–Neri, he was pretty good at Tirreno winning the KOM and then in SanRemo (he made a long solo attack) and Turkey but in May he suffered a crash breaking his collarbone and rarely raced after that (in fact only Volta a Portugal in August).
Whole this year he spent in ISD continental, I read that he came back to track events and wanted to do the road Worlds in Copenhagen, but he did not. I have not heard anything else about him so far. To be honest, taking into account his form in the first half of 2010 (before the injury) he can still race on a decent level but due to his past mistakes he’ll never achieve what he was expected to.
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