At the end of this year’s cycling season, three exceptional cycling personalities retired from the sport – at the age of 37 the Italian Vincenzo Nibali, the famous “shark of Messina”, at the age of 40 the Belgian Philippe Gilbert and even at the age of 42 the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde.
Beyond all the “lights of the ramps”, however, a fourth man left almost in oblivion, who perhaps deserves the same attention. The Italian Davide Rebellin, a one-day classics phenomenon from the turn of the millennium, has now bid farewell to the professional peloton at an incredible 51 years of age.
His professional career spanned 30 years, and between 2000 and 2010, when he was most successful, he was no “wonder”. He won many famous classics – three times at the Walloon Arrow, one time at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Amstel Gold Race and many others.
I will definitely do some more races. I still love pedaling and I want to continue it, but in a different way.
He also proved himself in weekly stage races. He won Tirreno–Adriatico in 2001, Paris–Nice in 2008, and also has a notch from the Grand Tour. In 1996, he won a stage at the Giro d’Italia and rode six stages in the pink jersey. He scored a total of 61 victories.
He last pinned the number in Sunday’s one-day Veneto Classic in Italy’s hilly north-east. “I feel good, I’m in good shape and I like the route. It has lots of ups and downs, cobbles and gravel. I am happy to have this great opportunity to say goodbye and thank all the fans with a race that will take place on my roads,” said Rebellin. “It will be 190 very special kilometers that will be very emotional for me. I will have the opportunity and time to look back on the good and bad times that have characterized my career.”
He was still commuting in the foreground
He ended up finishing in a very respectable 30th place, just four minutes behind recognized winner Mark Hirschi. As the best of its Italian continental team Work Service Vitalcare Vega. A week before that, he finished 39th at the first gravel world championship.
“This ends a beautiful adventure full of strong emotions and wonderful memories that I will carry with joy in my heart forever,” Rebellin later wrote on Instagram.
He started his professional career in 1992. It was long before a large part of today’s peloton was born. He rode with such names as Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich or Marco Pantani.
And like many riders of that generation, his career was not without blemish. In April 2009, he was suspended for two years due to a doping test from the Beijing Olympics in 2008. It revealed the presence of CERA, the third generation of EPO, substances that stimulate blood formation, in his body. It was a hard blow for Rebella, he lost his silver Olympic medal from the road race in Beijing, there was a threat that he would have to pay 500 thousand euros in damages and even go to prison for three years. It certainly had a negative impact on his further career.
View of sports doctor and trainer Karel Martinek
MD Karel Martinek, who takes care of several Czech cyclists as a coach, does not see anything extraordinary in Rebellin’s case.
“They’re such individuals, for God’s sake. He was lucky that he wasn’t worn out, that he was motivated, and maybe lucky that he wasn’t such a winning tip. He did win a lot of races as a pro. But he belongs to those who do not get tired of it. They must not become a 3x world champion, like Sagan and others. He was certainly lucky that his physical body is very strong, that he did not have problems with so many serious injuries.
It is true that it also belongs to an era when driving was different. Cycling recorded that longevity. Today there are greater intensities and much has changed. He certainly loved the sport terribly, and external circumstances, health and family environment supported him in this.
I wouldn’t look for any miracles in it. He is something like Jágr in hockey, the Auckland brothers or Řezáč in cross-country skiing or Pechsteinová in speed skating. He certainly wasn’t prolonging that career for money. By the way, I feel that he was also such a mentor to our best cyclist today, Jan Hirt. That they solved a lot of things together.”
After doping, he started from scratch
A two-year sentence seemed like an eight-year sentence to him. And he started again from scratch. While he had mostly ridden in top teams until then, when he returned to racing in 2011 after a doping scandal, he never really got back to the top level.
From 2013 to 2016 he still rode for the Polish CCC team and from 2017 until his last season he was a member of a number of continental stables. He had already met the sons of his greatest rivals at races.
He recorded his last major victory in the royal 3rd stage of the Tour of Turkey 2015, at the age of 43. But still in 2018 he won a stage of the race in Algeria. Even his later results were not shameful. Last season he managed three top 10 finishes in stage races of the higher UCI 2.1 category.
Without a coach, just with your experience
His whole career proves that he is a very tough guy who never let himself be broken. This is also evidenced by the event last September, when he fractured his leg at the age of 50 when he fell at the Marko Pantani memorial. After a long rehabilitation process, he returned to the professional peloton again this June. “I didn’t want to end my career with a double broken leg… I am not only a cyclist, but also a second father to my fellow riders. I wanted to help them and pass on the experience.”
He was well aware that his body at fifty did not function as well as at twenty. “You have to pay more attention to him. But I haven’t changed much in training. I’ve made some adjustments, but basically I train the same way I did at the beginning of my career. I don’t have a trainer, I don’t have a nutritionist. I have a lot of experience and I know myself,” he said last year according to the website WeLoveCycling.com.
A near-vegetarian, he hasn’t eaten red meat in years. In 1997, he switched to a gluten-free diet and feels better because of it. When he is at home, he lives an ordinary life with his wife. They get up at 7:30 and he does some strength training. Then they have breakfast and go for a bike ride. They have dinner around six and at nine they both go to bed.
For some, he will forever be a doping cheat whose career is not worth mentioning. For others, a curiosity – a driver whose love for the sport allowed him to race until the age of 51 at a time when the best are getting younger and younger today.
By the way, it stays with cycling. He wants to pursue a development project with team bike sponsor Dynatek and gravel racing. “And I will certainly still ride some races myself. I still love pedaling and I want to continue it, but in a different way.”
