Former cyclist Melissa Hoskins, 32, an Olympic track and field runner at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games, died in a hospital in Adelaide, Australia, on the last day of the year, just hours after she was hit by a van on a road near her had been hit at home at home. Shortly afterwards, the police arrested her husband, Jumbo driver and double time trial world champion Rohan Dennis, who was driving the vehicle. Dennis, 33, was charged with manslaughter by dangerous driving, careless driving and endangering life and was released on bail with a requirement to appear in Adelaide court in March.
The couple, married since 2018 and fathers of two children, were listed in mid-January on the website of the Santos Tour Down Under, the first WorldTour race of the year, as organizers of a family cycling event scheduled to take place in Adelaide in 2024, but the dates were changed by the Website removed.
Neither the Australian media, the police nor the court mention the possibility that the accident and death of the cyclist was a case of gender-based violence. However, the cycling world immediately remembered the news of an incident that occurred just over two years ago in the Andorran town of La Massana, where the couple lived, as did dozens of professional cyclists from around the world. On October 21, 2021, Andorran police reported that a woman in a state of shock asked for help on the way because she said she was trying to escape home where she had been attacked by her partner. A truck driver pulled up next to her and called the police, who soon arrested her husband, a 31-year-old Australian cyclist who was accused of domestic violence. The name of this cyclist, whose anagraphic data and occupation match those of Dennis, has never been officially published. Some teammates on the train always said in private conversations that the perpetrator was actually Dennis.
If the Australian justice system finally charges him with murder in connection with domestic violence, Dennis' case would be reminiscent of that of South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius, who has been in prison since 2013 and is serving a 15-year sentence for shooting his girlfriend . the model. Reeva Steenkamp. A few weeks ago, the court in Pretoria announced that 37-year-old Pistorius would be released on parole in January.
Rohan Dennis, with the gold in the 2019 world time trial. Nigel Roddis (EFE)
Dennis, 2018 and 2019 world time trial champion and Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo, was a cyclist of great class and an anarchic and moody character who ruined his chances of success in the major classics or stage races. He drove for the best teams in the world. He began his career in the WorldTour with Garmin (now EF) based in Girona, a North American team from which he moved to BMC, with whom he even briefly became the leader of the Giro d'Italia, the Vuelta a España and the Tour de France. Thanks to his status as a prologue author. After a turbulent year in Bahrain, a team that suddenly left in the middle of the 2019 Tour, as soon as he arrived in the Pyrenees he ended up at Ineos, where he showed an unknown facet, that of an exceptional mountain journeyman. With epic performances in the Riesenstelvio and Sestriere, Dennis destroyed Portuguese João Almeida's pink jersey and led his teammate Tao Geoghegan to the final pink jersey. In 2022, he signed with Jumbo, where his final service was helping Primož Roglič win the 2023 Giro.
In the middle of the year he announced that he would be hanging up his bike on December 31, 2023.
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