Two years after the death of former Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin, which occurred in November 2022, a German truck driver, Wolfgang Rieke, was sentenced, Monday, October 14, by the Vincenza court to four years in prison for having hit him and caused his death. The prosecution had requested a five-year prison sentence.
The truck driver, an employee of a company in Recke, near Münster (northern Germany), collided with Davide Rebellin on a roundabout who was on a training bike ride on November 30, 2022, in the town of Montebello Vicentino, in Veneto (north-east). Mr. Rieke, 64, did not stop. Davide Rebellin, 51, died instantly.
The German driver was identified by analyzing images from surveillance cameras located near the scene of the accident, before being arrested in Germany in June 2023.
During his career, Davide Rebellin had forged one of the finest records in one-day races of his generation: he notably won the Flèche wallonne three times and once Liège-Bastogne-Liège, succeeding in 2004 a resounding hat-trick in the Ardennes classics (Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Flèche wallonne, Amstel Gold Race).
He also finished second in the road race at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing but, testing positive for EPO several months later, he lost his silver medal and received a two-year suspension.
Also read (2019): Article reserved for our subscribers Cycling: the last days of Davide Rebellin
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