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By Barry Boyce, CyclingRevealed Historian
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Ottavio Bottecchia (Ita) 
Born: Wednesday, August 1, 1894, Sant Martino, Italy
Died: Wednesday, June 15, 1927
Ottavio Bottecchia had a storied Tour de France history, but after two years of success the future would not be kind to a very talented rider. Automoto team leader Henri Pelissier brought him to the TdF in 1923 for support. Ottavio Bottecchia came to the Tour a relatively unknown rider from Italy, but finished the race as the revelation of 1923. Bottecchia went on to record victories in 1924 and 1925, but his results would never be better than those years. Bottecchia returned in 1926 but clearly off the form of the previous two years.
Early in his professional racing career Bottecchia was becoming a great hero in Italy. As the political atmosphere of Italy grew uneasy in the early 1920's, Benito Mussolini and Italy's new Fascist Party heavily recruited the celebrity Bottecchia. Although he did not officially sign on as a Fascist, he was used as a role model for the “New Italy.” As his celebrity status grew, the gap with the Fascists became wider.
Within months of his disappointing performance in the 1926 Tour, Bottecchia's life took a bizarre and fatal twist. "Le Macon de Frioul" (the Mason from Frioul), while on a solo training ride near his home, was found bloodied, bruised, and unconscious on the side of the road. He died at the hospital shortly after the attack. The specifics of the incident become mysterious.
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