The Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin, runner-up in the 2004 World Cycling Championship, died this Wednesday after being run over by a truck in the vicinity of the municipality of Montebello Vicentino (northeast).
“I am terribly shocked to hear this sad news. May the earth be light to you, RIP Davide,” Vincenzo Nibali, Rebellin’s teammate on the Italian team, wrote on social media.
Rebellin, 51, was riding his bicycle on a highway when he was hit by a truck that, however, continued on its route without realizing it was hit, the media reported.
The Italian, who ended his sports career in the ‘Veneto Classic’ (Italy) in October 2022, became a professional in 1992, just after participating in the Barcelona Olympic Games, with the GB-MG Maglificio team (Mg Boys Maglificio-Technogym, currently).
A specialist in the classics, Rebellin spent thirty years pedaling in which he managed to win, among other competitions, a stage of the Giro d’Italia (1996), three Fleche Wallonne (2004, 2007 and 2009), a Liège-Bastogne-Liège (2004 ), a classic from San Sebastián (1997) and an Amstel Gold Race (2004), becoming the first in history to win this last competition in a year 2004 to remember.
In 2008 he was involved in a controversy for failing a doping control during the Beijing Olympics, where he won the silver medal in the road cycling category.
Rebellin had to return the Olympic medal and diploma but, seven years later, he was acquitted by the Court of Pádova (north).
The National Union of Mountain Peoples and Communities (UNCEM) regretted the death of Rebellin and highlighted the problem of safety for cyclists on the road.
“We cannot accept it. Appropriate policy options for the safety of cyclists on the roads come too late. UNCEM joins the pain of the family and great cycling,” reads the statement.
The Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde also mourned his death with a message on his official Twitter account: “My deepest condolences to the family and friends of Davide Rebellin, a colleague and rival for so many years. D.E.P”.
