Once again Bottecchia

The hazards of an early Tour de France: few specatators except wandering cows! Note the atrocious road surface.

As in 1924 Ottavio Bottecchia emerged winner of the Tour, though the crushing domination was not there. By now, Bottecchia was 31 (he had come to cycling late after serving as a soldier in the Great War and then earning a living as a bricklayer - hence the nickname, "Le maçon de Frioul" - the Friuli bricklayer) and the pedals didn't turn with their former speed.

Just as in 1924, Bottecchia won the first stage, and then added two more on the way to the Pyrenees. But this time he had a new challenger, the Belgian Adelin Benoît, riding for Thomann-Dunlop. The lead swapped between the two riders all the way to Bayonne, but then Benoît took what appeared to be a commanding lead after taking over eleven minutes from Bottecchia on the first Pyreneen stage - formerly Bottecchia's great stamping ground. The reply from the Automoto team was swift. Though it was Nicolas Frantz (Alcyon) who won in Perpignan, Lucien Buysse and Bottecchia were close behind, whilst Benoit lost three quarters of an hour. Despite incurring a ten minute penalty in the Alps for failing to sign in at a control, Bottecchia was untroubled from then on, even more so when Frantz disappeared from contention on the stage to Evian. By Paris, where Bottecchia won his fourth stage to end with a flourish, he was a convincing winner, with Buysse protecting his rear

This was Bottecchia's final throw of the dice. In 1926 he retired from the Tour in the Pyrenees. In 1927 he was gearing up for another ride when he was found battered and bleeding by the side of a road near his home in Italy. Nearby, his bike lay unscratched against a tree. Some hours later he died. Many stories were put about for his death. For example, a farmer admitted he had seen Bottecchia stealing grapes, had thrown a stone at him and accidentally killed him. But who eats grapes in June, when they are not ripe? Others thought that he had crashed, hitting his head - but how to explain the undamaged bike? The most likely explanation is that he was murdered, probably by Fascists - Bottecchia did not hide his socialist leanings in Mussolini's Italy - though even this theory cannot be proved, for even if Bottecchia did not agree all the time with Mussolini, he was certainly a role model for the "New Italy". Whatever, Italy's first Tour de France winner was dead, and nearly three quarters of a century on, there seems little hope now of establishing the cause.

Stage winners

In a nutshell

• Once again the riders are grouped in teams rather than as individuals, with Automoto-Hutchinson (Bottecchia, Thys, Lucien and Jules Buysse, Henri and Francis Pélissier) gaining the upper hand over Alcyon-Dunlop (Sellier, Aymo, Mottiat, Emile Masson Sr, Bellenger and Frantz).
• Eugène Christophe finished 18th overall in his final Tour, 19 years after first riding the race. As well as Christophe, this was the final Tour for Philippe Thys, Henri Pélissier and Jean Alavoine.

Results

Overall

1st: Ottavio Bottecchia, (Italy), Automoto-Hutchinson, 5430km in 219h 10' 18" (24.775km/h)
2nd: Lucien Buysse, (Belgium), Automoto-Hutchinson, @ 54' 20"
3rd: Bartolomeo Aymo, (Italy), Alcyon-Dunlop, @ 56' 17"
4th: Nicolas Frantz, (Luxembourg), Alcyon-Dunlop, @ 1h 11' 24"
5th: Albert Dejonghe, (Belgium), J.B.Louvet-Pouchois, @ 1h 27' 42"
6th: Théophile Beeckman, (Belgium), Thomann-Dunlop, @ 2h 24' 43"
7th: Omer Huyse, (Belgium), Armor-Dunlop, @ 2h 33' 38"
8th: August Verdyck, (Belgium), Christophe-Hutchinson, @ 2h 44' 36"
9th: Félix Sellier, (Belgium), Alcyon-Dunlop, @ 2h 45' 59"
10th: Federico Gay, (Italy), Meteore-Wolber, @ 4h 06' 03"

(49th: Fernand Besnier, (France), Touriste-Routier, @ 36h 10' 50")

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