VICENZA – Tragedy on the road, yet another, in the Vicenza area today, Wednesday 30 November. And the victim is Davide Rebellinthe 51-year-old cycling champion who was hit by a truck and is died along the Regional road 11, in the territory of the municipality of Montebello Vicentino. The accident shortly before noon: according to an initial reconstruction, the heavy vehicle leaving the neighbourhood highway junction near the restaurant bar “La Padana” he allegedly hit and overwhelmed the champion riding his racing bike. Then the man behind the wheel it didn’t stop, moving away; but it is not yet clear whether or not he realized what had happened. The carabinieri are at work to reconstruct the dynamics of the accident and for track down the driver.
The brother on the spot: “It’s his bike”
The circumstance in which the recognition of the victim took place is tragic. A brother of Rebellin, Charles, had learned that there had been a road accident in the Montecchio area, a cyclist run over by a heavy vehicle. He immediately went to the scene, perhaps for some sort of tragedy presentiment, and immediately recognized his brother’s bike, crumpled up. He was left in shock assisted by rescuers.
The victories of Davide Rebellin
Davide Rebellin, from Vicenza from Lonigo, born in San Bonifacio in the Veronese area in 1971, made his professional debut after the Olympic Games in the Franco Chioccioli, Franco Ballerini and Mario Cipollini, the GB-MG Maglificio. He honors the first months of professionalism with a brilliant ninth place in the Giro di Lombardia and takes his first success as a professional the following year, winning the final classification of the Hofbrau Cup, a short German stage race. After a couple of years on the sly, he shines in the 1996 Giro d’Italia, where he triumphs in the stage with arrival at Monte Sirino and wears the pink jersey for six consecutive days. Sixth in the final classification of that Giro, he will repeat himself with a good performance in the Vuelta a España, which he will finish in seventh place. Davide Rebellin In 1997 he scored a prestigious double, winning the Clásica San Sebastián and the Swiss Grand Prix in Zurich in just a few days, taking advantage of the condition reached at the end of the Grande Boucle, his main objective of the season, which ended in failure. Thus, now thirty years old, after several seasons in which he could have won much more, he finally specialized in road races and short stage races, winning the 2001 Tirreno-Adriatico, and the 2003 Frankfurt Grand Prix.
In 2004 he starred in a season that saw him winning in the Amstel Gold Race, Freccia Vallone, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège: he thus became the first cyclist capable of conquering the three Ardennes classics in just one week; he also finished second in the final standings of the World Cup, preceded by his compatriot Paolo Bettini. At the end of the season, due to not being called up to the Italian national team, he decides to run the world championship with the colors of Argentina: the delayed arrival of his passport, however, does not allow him to do so.
In 2005, thanks to placings in the classics of the calendar (fourth at the Amstel Gold Race, third at the Freccia Vallone, fifth at the Giro di Lombardia), he obtained the final third place in the UCI ProTour classification. After a spring conditioned by a fall during the Vuelta al País Vasco, 2006 is the year of his rediscovered call-up to the national team, where he plays a fundamental role in Paolo Bettini’s conquest of the world championship.[10] After about a month he triumphed on the ramps of San Luca, thus conquering the Giro dell’Emilia. 2007 begins with second place in Paris-Nice. The campaign in the Ardennes sees him protagonist again: second, first and fifth place respectively at Amstel Gold Race, Freccia Vallone and Liège-Bastogne-Liege. He then honored the eighth blue shirt at the world championships in Stuttgart, managing to finish in sixth position six seconds behind the winner Bettini. He ends the season in second place in the final UCI ProTour rankings.
Davide Rebellin leader at Paris-Nice 2008
In 2008 he conquered his first Paris-Nice, finishing ahead of Rinaldo Nocentini by just 3 seconds, the minimum gap in the history of the French stage race. On August 9 following the Olympic Games in Beijing, on his 37th birthday, he won the silver medal in the road event, overtaken in a sprint a few meters from the finish line by the Spaniard Samuel Sánchez, at the end of a break that lasted about fifteen kilometers which had involved, together with the two, a small number of runners, including the Swiss Fabian Cancellara, third at the finish line. He participates as co-captain of the Italian national team at the world championships in Varese: he takes fourth place, his best result in a world championship. He therefore skipped the Giro di Lombardia due to the withdrawal of his sports group, Gerolsteiner, after a series of doping tests. But his career is full of successes.
Withdrawal
In 2021 he competes in the ranks of Work Service, Continental formation of Montappone directed by Demetrio Iommi; with the new jersey he obtained, among others, the seventh place at the Turul României, at the beginning of September. He continues with the Italian training also in 2022 in what represents his last season: in fact, he ends his competitive activity on 16 October on his home roads at the Veneto Classic, concluding a long-lasting professional career with a thirtieth place at the venerable age of 51 .
