Fernando Gaviria, a seven-time Grand Tour stage winner, has been given a two-month suspended sentence after being caught driving five times over the alcohol limit, the same day his transfer to a new team was announced.
The incident occured in Monaco last month, three days after the Colombian sprinter, 31, finished his season at the Tour of Guangxi. Local newspaper Nice-Matin reported that police stopped Gaviria at 1:15pm after he was spotted driving across solid road markings and into oncoming traffic.
Yesterday, appearing in Monaco’s “correctional court” without legal representation, Judge Florestan Bellinzona told Gaviria: “You’re one or two drinks away from going into a coma. You are a public threat.” The court also heard that it took until midnight until he was sober enough to be detained properly. In his defence, Gaviria said “It was my mistake, I won’t do it again” adding that he had “work stress and family problems.”
He pled guilty to drink-driving after a spot test found his blood alcohol level of 1.18mg/l was almost five times the legal limit in Monaco (0.25mg/l). Accepting the prosecutor’s reccomendations, the judge sentenced Gaviria to a two-month suspended prison term, a €5,000 fine, and a ban from driving in the city-state for two years. He was also ordered to pay fines relating to his traffic violations.
After a successful early career on the track, including becoming Omnium World Champion, Gaviria started his career as a 20-year-old stagiaire (trainee) at Etixx – Quick Step in August 2015. His first major road victory arrived a month later at the Tour of Britain where he was led out by Mark Cavendish before outsprinting Andre Greipel and Edvald Boasson Hagen in Blyth.
He became Quick-Step’s marquee sprinter, winning stages and the points jersey at the Giro d’Italia the following year, then two stages at the Tour de France in 2018, including the opening stage that saw him wear the yellow jersey.
He moved to UAE Team Emirates in 2019 and won another Giro stage, but the Covid-19 pandemic brought his career trajectory to a halt, with Gaviria one of the first pros in the peloton to test positive for the virus. He eventually tested positive on three separate occasions in two years and has since struggled to recapture his best form.
Since moving to Movistar in 2023, Gaviria claimed only three victories in his three years with the team. His riding style also became recognisable for the earliness with which he launched his sprints,, inadvertently leading his rivals out and frequently being passed before the finish line.
Yesterday, as he appeared in court in Monaco, it was confirmed that he would swap Movistar for the Spanish ProTour team Caja Rural. In the press release announcing his transfer, Gaviria said he would target the Vuelta a Espana where he was hoping to complete the trilogy set of Grand Tour stage wins. Incidentally, the Vuelta will start in 2026 with an individual time trial in Monaco.
5 thoughts on ““One or two glasses from a coma”: Tour de France stage winner given suspended sentence for drink-driving five times over the limit”
I know road.cc is only
I know road.cc is only reporting what was said, but cross-referencing the content and comments on the other DUI story, this guy would only be slightly over the UK limit (which is 80 vs their 25, if I’m reading the numbers properly); an awful long way from “one or two glasses away from a coma” and requiring upwards of 8 hours to sober up enough to understand the process.
So either there’s been a bit of sensationalism, or the delays were due to some other reason or there was something else in his bloodstream that shouldn’t have been there?
Apols if I’ve got my numbers wrong …
panda wrote:
It’s explained by what seems to be a mixup in reporting between blood alcohol testing and breath alcohol testing: it says he was subject to a “spot test”, so presumably a breathalyzer, for which Monaco’s limit is 0.25mg of alcohol per litre of breath. The England and Wales breathalyzer limit is higher at 0.35mg/l, but even in the UK his 1.18 reading would be more than three times higher than the limit.
The 80mg referenced in the other story is for mg/100ml alcohol in blood; Monaco’s limit for that metric is 50mg/100ml; at a rough calculation from his breathalyzer result his blood alcohol level when stopped would have been well over 200mg/ml – something that it would take about eight pints of Stella to achieve so probably not far off blacking out, especially if as a professional cyclist he wasn’t (one assumes) habituated to such quantities.
Makes sense, thanks.
Makes sense, thanks.
Quote:
Maths fail again – 1.18 is four and a bit times 0.25
Is this his first drink
Is this his first drink driving offense (anywhere, not just Monaco)? If so, the penalty sounds sppropriate. If not, because he is a ‘public figure’, it should have been a much harder slap!