Rebellin’s widow: “They tore him apart before killing him”

The longest-lived and unfortunate Italian cycling racer, overwhelmed and killed last November 30 by a lorry, is remembered by his life partner who tells how in the face of adversity he always reacted in the same way: with silence and the bicycle. He went pedaling, to free himself from the torments that had been pursuing him for over a decade. “They tore me to pieces inside, before killing him,” reveals Francoise Antonini, the second French wife of Davide Rebellin, in an exclusive interview with the weekly Oggi, on newsstands from Thursday 15 November.

The cover of the new issue of Today on newsstands

ALWAYS IN THE SADDLE – «Ever since I met him, there have always been problems, lawsuits, lawyers. Everything was unfair, and I stress unfair (the doping charge was dropped with a full acquittal after seven years spent in court, but the silver medal won at the Beijing Olympics was not returned to him, ed). All this fury was too much. Davide never got angry, he didn’t raise his voice, he kept everything inside, he didn’t say anything, even to protect me. Only once have I seen him with tears in his eyes, but then he had the usual reaction, he took off and went pedaling… he trained every day, apart from Christmas, which was dedicated to us. But for the rest of the year he cycled all day. Six, seven hours and even more, and then the gym. “The older you get, the more you need to train”, he told me. In ten years we have never had a weekend or a holiday together, the bike was his life… He also pedaled 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.”

Davide Rebellin killed by pirate truck. This is who the cycling champion was – look

DIFFICULT YEARS AND THEN THE UNJUST DEATH – Francoise Antonini reveals to Oggi: «He had gone to Veneto to meet his lawyers, because he had lost the appeal in the case with the Revenue Agency. He had hidden it from me. In 2015 she had won the first grade and we thought it was over, but it wasn’t. “You will see it will take some time, but we will win, we have proof”, she repeated to me. She had brought witnesses, everyone saw that she lived in Monte Carlo, she couldn’t understand why she had lost. The morning he was run over, he had gone to the bank because he was out of money in his account and needed a loan. My husband was treated unjustly to the end, and his death was also horrible and unjust.’

The full interview is on the issue of Today on newsstands