The household of former professional Davide Rebellin have welcomed the choice of a Vicenza courtroom to reject the plea deal of the truck driver charged with inflicting his demise.
As an alternative the motive force – 63-year-old Wolfgang Rieke – will go on trial on Could 27, stories La Gazzetta della Sport in Italy.
He had hoped to serve out a sentence of three years 11 months beneath home arrest, however this was rejected by a panel of judges.
“It was a pleasant shock, we did not anticipate it,” Rebellin’s brother Carlo instructed La Gazzetta.
Rebellin was killed in November 2022 after Rieke allegedly struck the Italian along with his truck he was driving in Montebello Vicentino.
“We will solely be happy with the truth that… the judges have determined to go forward and ship Rieke to trial,” Carlo Rebellin added. “We renew all our thanks for the good work carried out by the Italian Justice for Davide, each on the prosecutor’s workplace and on the courtroom.”
The household, he mentioned, weren’t motivated by revenge, however had been search what was proper: “We don’t want revenge however justice for Davide, and we imagine {that a} trial is the proper place to establish all of the information, and to reach at a sentence that won’t return him to us however which is at the very least probably the most acceptable attainable, to the intense duties of the accused,” he mentioned.
In keeping with a report by Il Gazzettino on the time, the motive force was totally conscious that he had struck Rebellin, however however, nonetheless fled the scene. The Italian newspaper claims that witnesses noticed the motive force exit his Volvo truck after the crash and strategy Rebellin, earlier than then getting again into his car and driving away.
The bicycle owner was 51 when he died. He had amassed an enormous palmarès throughout a 30-year professional profession from which he had solely simply retired. His greatest race outcomes got here within the hilly Classics, with wins in occasions comparable to Liège-Bastogne-Liège (2004), Amstel Gold (2004) and Flèche Wallonne (2004, 07, 09). Like many riders of his era, he didn’t stay freed from controversy, and was stripped of an Olympic silver medal from Beijing 2008 after testing constructive for CERA.
