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. Death On 23 May 1927 Ottavio's brother, Giovanni, was riding his bike near Conegliano when a car struck and killed him. Ottavio returned to Italy from France because of the death. While back, he led the peloton at the Giro d'Italia on 2 June. On 3 June 1927, a farmer 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 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. A priest gave him the last rites. From there he was taken by cart to hospital in Gemona. He died there on 14 June, twelve days later, without regaining consciousness. 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. Don Dantė Nigris, the priest who gave him