Ottavio Bottecchia

Ottavio Bottecchia (; 1 August 1894 – 15 June 1927 ) was an Italian cyclist and the first Italian winner of the Tour de France.

He was found injured and unconscious by a roadside and died a few days later; the exact circumstances of his accident remain a mystery.

Early life Bottecchia was born as the eighth child of a poor family of nine children. He went to school for just a year, first working as a shoemaker, then as a bricklayer. His father left to find work in Germany.

Despite being a convinced socialist with anti-Fascist convictions, Bottecchia joined the Bersaglieri corps of the Italian army during the first world war. Bottecchia endured a gas attack on 3 November 1917 after the battle of Caporetto while providing covering fire for retreating forces. Near Sequals he was captured, but escaped while being marched into captivity at night. After returning to Italian lines, he twice conducted reconnaissance sorties into Austrian-held areas, which by now included his home region of Colle Umberto. Bottecchia was later awarded a bronze medal for valor.

Professional career Bottecchia became a professional cyclist in 1920. He was given a racing bicycle by Teodoro Carnielli, president of a cycling association, the Associazione Sportiva di Vittorio Veneto. Carnielli encouraged Bottecchia to join the Pordenone sport union.

In 1923 Bottecchia placed fifth in the 11th Giro d'Italia, the highest finish by an 'isolate' (rider without a team). His position attracted the leading French rider, Henri Pélissier, who asked Bottecchia to join his professional team, Automoto-Hutchinson. Pélissier had just left the J. B. Louvet team after an internal row and had taken another rider, Honoré Barthélemy, with him. Automoto was a French motorcycle company that also sold its products in Italy. Automoto saw the chance not only of winning the Tour de France but of having a further Italian rider to stimulate foreign sales. Henri Pélissier said he had seen Bottecchia ride the Giro di Lombardia and Milan–San Remo and the team signed him. His ears stuck out so far that the Tour organiser, Henri Desgrange referred to him as "butterfly".

It was as a professional that Bottecchia learned to read, taught by his friend and training partner, Alfonso Piccin. Together they read the Italian sports daily, Gazzetta dello Sport, and clandestine anti-fascist pamphlets protesting at the rule of Benito Mussolini. during a thunderstorm in 1926. Buysse emerged the winner. The writer Bernard Chambaz said:

The unpleasant hand of destiny fell on his shoulders. It was as though the misery of his origins had caught up with him. Dark thoughts and a presentiment of the future haunted him. He abandoned the Tour of 1926 on a stage which those who were there described as apocalytpic because of the cold and the violence of the wind. He went home, unhappy. He no longer had the heart to train. He feared that he'd been 'cut down by a bad illness'. He coughed and he ached in his back and his bronchial tubes. The following winter, he lost his younger brother, knocked down by a car. Ottavio returned to Italy from France because of the death. While back, he led the peloton at the Giro d'Italia on 2 June. His bike lay some distance away on the verge and was undamaged. There were no skid marks to suggest a car had forced him off the road and no marks to the pedals or handlebar tape to suggest he had lost control.

Bottecchia was carried to an inn and laid on a table.

On the day of the incident, Bottecchia had risen at dawn and asked for a hot bath to be ready for him for when he would return in three hours. He rode to his friend Alfonso Piccini's house to go training together as on other days. Piccini decided not to go and Bottecchia went to see another friend, Riccardo Zille. He had other things to do, however, so Bottecchia set out alone.

Theories abound about the circumstances of his death. Bernard Chambaz of L'Humanité said: Accident or assassination? The accident theory, favoured by justice, on the accounts of witnesses and a medical examination which also referred to several fractures, was based on an assumption of an illness, sunstroke and a fall. In fact, the inquiry was quickly closed. The theory suited everybody: the Mussolini régime, the presumed killer and even – it's sad to say – the family, now sure of a large insurance payout. However, an Italian dying from stab wounds on a New York waterfront claimed he had been employed as a hit man.

Bottecchia bicycles In 1926, Bottecchia began working with frame-maker Teodoro Carnielli to manufacture racing bikes, taking advantage of his Tour de France knowledge.

Career achievements

Major results

1923 Tour de France: Second place overall classification Winner stage 2 Wearing yellow jersey for 6 non-consecutive days

1924 Tour de France:

Winner stages 1, 6, 7 and 15 Wearing yellow jersey for 15 days (the entire race).

1925 Giro della provincia Milano Tour de France:

Winner stages 1, 6, 7 and 18 Wearing yellow jersey for 13 non-consecutive days.

Grand Tour results timeline