RIP Davide Rebellin

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

Well, possibly the trucker who collided with Rebellin even was the brother of the CEO of the truck company…

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Well, in Germany, truckers often are not punished too hard, because the country lacks truckers, and they are needed on the road. So everyone closes his eyes and doesn‘t want to see the problems like alcohol or fleeing from accidents.

A trucker of course wants to work, drive his truck, so he will try to drive without incident. If an incident happens, everyone reacts differently. For the trucker who collided with Rebellin, if the trucker is guilty, future life for this trucker might be more difficult than his past life, because Rebellin is dead.

Wether or not he was guilty. Seeing that you ran over somebody and not providing first aid is just as bad...
Here in Belgian he would be more than likely be charged with involuntary manslaughter, fleeing the scene of the crime and not helping a person in need.

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

Wether or not he was guilty. Seeing that you ran over somebody and not providing first aid is just as bad...
Here in Belgian he would be more than likely be charged with involuntary manslaughter, fleeing the scene of the crime and not helping a person in need.

BTW, I think now I‘m sure who the driver was, and which the firm was.

Yeah, not providing first aid to Rebellin here is evil. That‘s really bad. I however assume the trucker suddenly panicked, and fled because he feared for his licence, and was afraid of law enforcement.

Maybe the trucker was drunk again, on Wednesday?

2001 and 2014 should have been a warning for him. Nobody died there. Now, 2022, the worst case has happened. They are proud and experienced Italy specialized truckers. Of course they love this country, and all. But now Rebellin is dead. Why did that have to happen? How did it happen? Has fleeing been the only option?

What a tragedy…

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

BTW, I think now I‘m sure who the driver was, and which the firm was.

Yeah, not providing first aid to Rebellin here is evil. That‘s really bad. I however assume the trucker suddenly panicked, and fled because he feared for his licence, and was afraid of law enforcement.

Maybe the trucker was drunk again, on Wednesday?

2001 and 2014 should have been a warning for him. Nobody died there. Now, 2022, the worst case has happened. They are proud and experienced Italy specialized truckers. Of course they love this country, and all. But now Rebellin is dead. Why did that have to happen? How did it happen? Has fleeing been the only option?

What a tragedy…

Fleeing is/should/will never be an option.

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

Here in Belgian he would be more than likely be charged with involuntary manslaughter, fleeing the scene of the crime and not helping a person in need.

Yeah, and I hope the trucker who collided with Rebellin will be taken to Italy as soon as possible, and arrested there, and get his trial.

He‘s 62, and apparently received yellow cards from life even before 2022. He only knows if he was drunk last Wednesday. Maybe it‘s time for him to retire now - to leave his truck for the very last time? If not now, when?

 

[Extinction]

I never had particuarly strong opinions about Rebellin, I didn't really get into cycling until after his ban and I always viewed him more as a curiousity more than anything else. But this story is just tragic and sad


It's a twisted irony of life, that many show the most respect to people not until after they're dead.

He was so strong, one of the best hilly classics riders in the world from the late 90s till his disqualification, who also won Paris-Nice. And he had great presence on the bike, a bit like Bugno. To me he had something of an antique cyclist about him, one who could have easily ridden among the quiet, working class hard men back in the 40s/50s, but who was also strangely modern. He was (perhaps for this reason), however, a bit of a misfit and a very solitary, even meek man, who didn't know how to make his voice heard in Italian cycling, unlike Bettini and Di Luca, for example. Unfortunately in Italy the extroverted peacocks, who know how to walk the walk and talk the talk, go the farthest. By contrast Rebellin in a very unassumimg manner just went about his business and then, when he did not confess to doping and had trouble with the Italian fiscal authority (although had he not been sanctioned I doubt he would have had tax issues with the gov., as so many Italian pros, like Nibali, have had their residences in Montecarlo or Switzerland to avoid paying taxes), hypocritically became a uomo non grata.

PS. In know it's trite, but when interviewed over the tragedy Nibali said he was obviously shocked and troubled, to then comment "era un uomo vero" ("he was a true man").

 

[Extinction]

Yeah, and I hope the trucker who collided with Rebellin will be taken to Italy as soon as possible, and arrested there, and get his trial.

He‘s 62, and apparently received yellow cards from life even before 2022. He only knows if he was drunk last Wednesday. Maybe it‘s time for him to retire now - to leave his truck for the very last time? If not now, when?

I'd bet my house that he filled up on alcohol when he filled his truck with deisel that morning. In Italy fleeing the scene amounts to involuntary manslaughter. If you are drunk this rightly increases the culpability and penalty. It seems reasonable that such laws should be the status quo across the EU or any civilised state for that matter. Verily it boggles the mind that this is not the case in Germany.

 

[Oldermanish]

BTW, I think now I‘m sure who the driver was, and which the firm was.

Yeah, not providing first aid to Rebellin here is evil. That‘s really bad. I however assume the trucker suddenly panicked, and fled because he feared for his licence, and was afraid of law enforcement.

Maybe the trucker was drunk again, on Wednesday?

2001 and 2014 should have been a warning for him. Nobody died there. Now, 2022, the worst case has happened. They are proud and experienced Italy specialized truckers. Of course they love this country, and all. But now Rebellin is dead. Why did that have to happen? How did it happen? Has fleeing been the only option?

What a tragedy…

Not to disregard the respect a retired cyclist deserves by discussing his cowardly assailant but IMO the dude didn't panic. He proceeded to deliver his load in Germany and then went home. He's not only a lowly POS but obviously as stupid as he is worthless.

 

[Red Rick]

Not to disregard the respect a retired cyclist deserves by discussing his cowardly assailant but IMO the dude didn't panic. He proceeded to deliver his load in Germany and then went home. He's not only a lowly POS but obviously as stupid as he is worthless.

Calmly continuing business as usual after killing someone sounds a lot worse to me.

 

[Blanco]

Ciao Grande Davide! Rest in peace.

 

[Unchained]

There is nothing good that come out of this.. But seeing the suffering family make a grounded statement.. We can accept human error, please come forward.. They understood and the guy still didn't do the right thing..

 

[Extinction]

The words of his wife are heartbreaking.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Rebellin's second wife as reported by La Repubblica:
(source in italiano https://cyclingpro.net/spaziociclismo/continental/davide-rebellin-la-moglie-rivendica-trattato-ingiustamente-fino-alla-fine-anche-la-sua-morte-orribile-e-ingiusta/)

He was a meticulous athlete who trained every day except Christmas for six, seven hours and even more, even to the detriment of the family: In ten years we never had a weekend or a holiday together, the bike was his life ... He also pedalled at night . In bed I could hear him sometimes tossing and panting in his sleep. Then when he woke up he would tell me that he had dreamed of winning the Belgian classics again. It was a recurring dream.

I hope his dream is coming true now!

 

[SafeBet]

Here, on page 7: https://road-safety.transport.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2022-03/FF_cyclists_20220209.pdf
2017-2019 Italy was actually below the EU average when it came to cycling fatalities per million inhabitants.

Since we were talking about it, I believe this is a more accurate measure of safety for cyclists. Italy is the worst by a wide margin (more data in the link)

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1610908206095646720

View: https://twitter.com/MenaspaP/status/1610908206095646720?t=zRTNqyv8NV4CeODarrsPFA&s=19

 

[Red Rick]

Since we were talking about it, I believe this is a more accurate measure of safety for cyclists. Italy is the worst by a wide margin (more data in the link)

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1610908206095646720

View: https://twitter.com/MenaspaP/status/1610908206095646720?t=zRTNqyv8NV4CeODarrsPFA&s=19

Damn. I've been to Italy and while I found the bike safety to be a lot worse, I never knew it was this bad. Guess it shows how good the Netherlands is that I find bike infrastructure in Germany terrible.

Is this mainly due to driver behavior?

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Italy has always been notoriously dangerous for training on the road for a number of reasons, it's partly why so few pros live and train there compared to 15 years ago.

 

[SafeBet]

Damn. I've been to Italy and while I found the bike safety to be a lot worse, I never knew it was this bad. Guess it shows how good the Netherlands is that I find bike infrastructure in Germany terrible.

Is this mainly due to driver behavior?

Lack of bike lanes too. There's very little culture for cycling as a mean of transport in Italy. Cyclists are mostly seen as a pain the ass.

 

[hrotha]

It's kinda hard to compare because in the Netherlands you get tons of people using their bikes for transport and moving almost exclusively on bike lanes, which has little relevance to recreational road cyclists for obvious reasons. But Italy also does terribly compared to similar countries with less cycling infrastructure like France and Spain, so that says a lot.

 

[Red Rick]

Lack of bike lanes too. There's very little culture for cycling as a mean of transport in Italy. Cyclists are mostly seen as a pain the ass.

Tbh I feel like recreational cyclists are seen as a pain in the ass everywhere. It's actually an online circlejerk that disturbs me.

But I do think over here we have so many bike lanes even on long group rides you can do a large part on bike lanes.

 

[RedheadDane]

Lack of bike lanes too. There's very little culture for cycling as a mean of transport in Italy. Cyclists are mostly seen as a pain the ass.

And some places it seems like people basically go "Cyclists are so horrible! They never use the bike lanes!"

The bike lanes:

 

[Samu Cuenca]

And some places it seems like people basically go "Cyclists are so horrible! They never use the bike lanes!"

The bike lanes:

Well now you know why they are producing talented CX riders in the UK these days.

 

[Red Rick]

Well now you know why they are producing talented CX riders in the UK these days.

Now I know why Danny MacAskill is British

 

[firefly3323]

anyone know of any data for America? There have been quite a few pedestrian fatalities in my area over the last few years and pretty much zero cycling infrastructure so I assume the number would be high.

 

[EliseeReclus]

Is this mainly due to driver behavior?

Partially driver behaviour, partially the amount of drivers on the roads (I think Italy has one of the highest rates of car ownership in Europe), partially lots of unnecessary rules for cyclists (for instance cyclists have to stay on the terminal right side of a roundabout rather than taking the lane like a car would, even if they're turning left) but a lot of it is done to the bad quality traffic engineering in Italy and the bad quality and upkeep of roads. There is no maximum lane width so you sometimes end up with wide roads without any demarcation between lanes, junctions are often excessively complicated and will always prioritise cars over pedestrians and cyclists. For me the sign of a well designed road is that it is uncomfortable to drive over the speed limit and impossible to significantly exceed the speed - in Italy this gets nowhere near that standard.

 

[Extinction]

Italy is densely populated, between Torino, Genova, Milano, Firenze, Roma, Napoli....not to mention the lesser historical centers, from Pavia, Verona, Mantua, Ferrara, Padua, Modena, Bologna, Siena, Grosseto ...all of which should be visited...and this has doubtless contributed to the situation. But I see no other fault, as normally Italian drivers deal with cyclists relatively well. But it's the high volume of motorists and cyclists in the same spaces that leads to trouble. Having said that, if you ride in the country it's no problem.