Life often turns out to be a fucking disaster. 30 years as a professionalthe last 10 repeating every day that there was nothing more charming than riding a bike, competing for pleasure and if you felt comfortable, why look at your identity card and retire. Davide Rebellin51 years old, an active runner until a little over a month ago, died this Wednesday in Vicenza (Italy) hit by a truck, which apparently did not even see him, and has plunged Italian cycling into deep sadness.
Rebellin He was a classic, a runner who after a few months of not hearing from him made anyone wonder if he was still active. He was old school, an enemy of three-week races, since in three decades He only played twice Tour, another two the Giro and five the Vuelta, although most of the time he abandoned long before the last stage. And perhaps he was the cyclist who has been active for the longest, although he lived through his best period as a runner at end of the last century and during the first decade of the present.
the lost medal
And since he was from the old school he also had a cursed relationship with doping that cost him the silver medal that he won in the road test of the Beijing Olympic Games, in 2008 when he was beaten in the final sprint by the Asturian samuel sanchez. Months later, the laboratory confirmed that he had achieved second place with CERA, a variant of EPO, in his veins, which brought him the corresponding punishment.
He was a classic in everything and the classics were his divine inspiration. In 2004 it was when he won Amstel Gold Race, Flecha Valona y Liège-Bastogne-Liège all at once in a magical month of April. He also tried to fight for the rainbow jersey and for as many victories in one-day races or one-week laps. In his palmares there are also, among 70 winsthe Paris-Nice or the Tirreno-Adriatico.
debuted in 1992
When he retired, in October, in a race of the new fashion of cycling, gravel, with the new bikes with a road physiognomy but adapted to the dirt, he said he would continue riding his bike but without the pressure of having to set the pace and perseverance necessary to continue withstanding the strong pace of a peloton. It was at the Veneto Classic.
This Wednesday he took the bike as he had done long before debuted as a professional in August 1992, five days before turning 21 years old. He went near Vicenza, in Montebello Vicentino. He was crushed by a truck, which apparently did not even see him, although the police are investigating whether the driver fled, something that unfortunately happens not only in Italy but in similar accidents in other places in Europe.
