Ottavio Bottecchia - Death Mystery

Death Mystery

On 3 June 1927, farmers outside the village of Peonis, near Bottecchia's home, found him on the roadside. His skull was cracked, one collarbone and other bones broken. His bike lay some distance away on the verge and wasn't damaged. 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'd lost control.

Bottecchia was carried to a bar and laid on a table. A priest gave him the last rites. From there he was taken by cart to hospital in Gemona. He died there 12 days later without regaining consciousness. The verdict was sunstroke but was widely dismissed for Bottecchia was used to the heat and a veteran of the Tour de France. He had also been found in the morning, before the day became hot. 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.

The only events which appear certain are that that morning, Bottecchia rose at dawn and asked for a hot bath to be ready for him when he returned after 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 from then on. The priest who gave him the last rites is said to have attributed the death to Fascists unhappy about Bottecchia's more liberal leanings. But Bottecchia was a barely literate racing cyclist at the end of his career, better known in France than in Italy, and not a politician or celebrity who could sway opinion. There's a theory that Fascists murdered him for speaking against Mussolini. An Italian dying from stab wounds on a New York waterfront even claimed he had been employed as a hit man. He named a supposed godfather, although nobody of the name was ever found. But Mussolini had been first to contribute to the Gazzetta dello Sport benefit fund.

Some suggested a fight. But a fight leaves cuts and bruises to both sides. Much later, a farmer in Pordenone said on his deathbed: "I saw a man eating my grapes. He'd pushed through the vines and damaged them. I threw a rock to scare him, but it hit him. I ran to him and realised who it was. I panicked and dragged him to the roadside and left him. God forgive me!" The problem with the story is that to throw a rock large enough to break a man's skull demands being so close to the victim that literally throwing it isn't necessary. Bottecchia was a local hero, on his bike, easily recognised so close to home. The farmer would have known him. Also his body was found in Peonis, not Pordenone. The farmer said he dragged the body off the farm and onto the roadside. If that was true, how did the body end up 35 miles (55 km) away? The final riddle is what Bottecchia was doing in a vineyard in June. Grapes don't ripen until late summer.

"Bottecchia was a revelation. His name will stay inseparable from the Tour de France."