Davide Rebellin is finally heading towards retirement, with the 50-year-old Italian stating that the 2022 season will be his last as a professional rider.
Rebellin, a winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Paris-Nice, and Tirreno-Adriatico in the 2000s, has been racing at Continental level for the past five years. He joined the Italian WorkService-Vega team in 2021 but ended it with a broken leg at the Memorial Marco Pantani, leading him to sign up for another season in order to try to bow out in style.
"In 2022 I want to put a good end to my professional career. It will be my final year," Rebellin told Spanish newspaper Marca.
"I didn't want to finish in 2021 with a broken tibia and fibula; I want to finish by competing, with a good programme, giving my all and getting good results."
Rebellin was speaking in Mallorca, where his team lined up in the Challenge Mallorca series last week. He did not feature in any of the squads for the races, but has been training in a bid to regain form for the final months of his career.
"In April, I'll be stronger. I feel good in training, I'm doing five or six hours," he said. "I have to push harder now, although I still have pain in the leg and it doesn't move like it should. I can't push it all the way, because I have to regain strength and muscle tone."
Rebellin started his career back in 1993 with the GB-MG team and went on to ride for the Polit, FDJ, and Liquigas teams before enjoying the most successful stint of his career at Gerolsteiner. He won the Ardennes triple - Liège, La Flèche Wallonne and Amstel Gold - in 2004 on his way towards 50 wins but his career was soon to be tainted by doping scandal.
Rebellin tested positive for CERA after the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and was stripped of his road race silver medal before being banned for two years. He returned in 2011 and got back to winning ways before spending four years at the CCC team and then the past five at various lower-level outfits.
He currently finds himself on a team where he is twice as old as anyone else, with the WorkService-Vega roster otherwise made up of riders in their late teens or early 20s.
"I'm not only a cyclist, but also a father to these kids, to whom I pass on my experience," Rebellin told Marca. "I'm a good example and show good values."
