Davide Rebellin is finally heading into retirement, and the 50-year-old Italian rider has stated that the 2022 season will be his last as a professional rider.

Rebellin, who won Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Paris-Nice, and Tirreno-Adriatico in the 2000s, has been racing at the continental level for the past five years; he joined the Italian Workservice Vega team in 2021, but Marco Pantani's memorial race, he ended the season with a broken leg.

"In 2022 I hope to have a good end to my professional career. That will be my last year," Rebellin told the Spanish newspaper Marca (opens in new tab). [I didn't want to end up in 2021 with a broken tibia and fibula." I want to put together a good program, give it my all, get good results, and end up fighting.

Rebellin said last week in Majorca, where the team competed in the Challenge Mallorca series. He did not make any of the race squads, but has been training to regain his form for the final months of his career.

"I'm stronger in April. My training has been good, I've been running for five or six hours. 'I still have pain in my legs and they don't move as well as they should. I can't push all the time because I have to let my strength and muscles recover."

Rebellin began his career in 1993 with the GB-MG team, then moved on to the Pollitt, FDJ, and Liquigas teams before achieving the best success of his career with Gerolsteiner. 2004 saw him win three consecutive Ardennes titles (Liège, La Fleche Wallonne, Amstel Gold) and 50 wins, but his career would soon be tainted by a doping scandal.

After testing positive for CERA after the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Rebellin was stripped of his road racing silver medal and banned for two years; he returned in 2011 and spent four years with the CCC team and the past five years with various lower-level organizations.

Work Service Vega consists of players in their late teens and early twenties.

"I am a cyclist as well as a father to my children. I am a good role model and set good values."