the precedent of violence, depression- -

On 21 October 2021 the police of the principality of Andorra communicated to the local press that they had rescued, on the road in the municipality of La Massana, an Australian woman in shock after having suffered violence and threats from her husband, stopped and reported. Nothing further was heard about the affair until yesterday when the Spanish newspaper El Pais revealed the identity of the two involved: Rohan Dennis, international cycling champion, and Melissa Hoskins, former track champion with the Australian national team and two-time silver medalist in the road test. Melissa, 32, the mother of two children with Rohan, died tragically on Saturday in the Adelaide suburbs.

It was not an accident: after a furious argument, Dennis would have boarded his SUV and knocked over his wife who was trying to stop him from escaping by holding on to the bonnet and dragging her for about ten metres. Melissa Hoskins died shortly after being admitted to hospital while Dennis, subjected to police custody, was released on bail and will go to trial on March 13, after investigators have tried to establish whether it was manslaughter due to serious imprudence (current charge) or voluntary.

Depression and eating disorders

In the eight great teams in which he played in his 15-year career there has never been a shortage of headbutts, furious arguments, insubordination, attacks against mechanics guilty of not having prepared his bike properly. In 2019, when he was racing with Bahrain-Merida, he disappeared from the route of the 12th stage of the Tour, de France in the Pyrenees, only to return news of him in the evening. The same year, in an extreme attempt to lose weight to improve his performance, he fasted until he suffered a depression that caused serious eating disorders. “I felt like crap,” he confessed, “and luckily I managed to stop in time.”

Double personality

The violence against his wife in 2019 and Saturday’s tragedy highlight a dual personality well known to teammates and sporting directors

: in his profile Instagram photos abound with his wife and children accompanied by messages of love. “I must confess – she wrote last October 24th immediately after retiring – that Melissa is adapting well to the fact that I now stay at home all day.” The last photo, that of a happy family in front of the Christmas tree, dates back to five days before a tragedy that shocked the entire cycling world.