You can’t keep a good man down, or in this case you can’t keep a good old rider out of the peloton…

Davide Rebellin, the oldest and longest running member of the pro peloton, has announced he will race yet another season in 2022 – at age 50 – and put off joining the Italian gran fondo circuit anytime soon.   

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Even a double broken leg last September at the Marco Pantani Memorial race, which many observers thought would signal Rebellin’s retirement, could not keep him from throwing his leg over the top-tube for the Italian continental team Work Service Marchiol Vega in 2022.  It will be Rebellin’s 30th professional season in his long storied career, one that started in 1992 riding a steel frame bike running 8 speed cassettes on 32 spoke box rim wheels.

The kind of bikes now popular at Eroica historical cycling events…  

By the time professional cyclists reach their 50s, most have been retired for more than a decade. But not Rebellin. The steady stalwart of the pro peloton will be running for another season on the road – and on gravel too.

“I really wanted to hang up my bike this year, but I can’t,” he told Tuttobiciweb in November while still hobbling around on crutches due to his broken leg.  

Rebellin is not just a token pro rider either, last season he finished tenth overall in the Sibiu Cycling Tour and seventh in the Tour of  Romania.

Rebellin has over 61 pro victories, but is best known for winning the Liège-Bastogne-Liège (2004), the Paris-Nice (2008), the Tirreno-Adriatico (2001), the Amstel Gold Race (2004) and three copies of La Flèche Wallonne (2004, 2007 and 2009). 

His career is also not free of doping controversy though. He served a two year ban after testing positive for EPO at the 2008 Beijing Olympics where he won a silver medal in the road race.

PHOTOS: Rebellin

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