Company: RAI – Radio Televisione Italiana
Country: Italy
Section: DOCUMENTARY – GREAT CHAMPION
Discipline: cycling
Director: Franco Bortuzzo
Editing: Luca Zanoli
Photo: Franco Bortuzzo
Soundtrack: Autori vari
Actors: giornalisti, scrittori, discendenti di Bottecchia, ciclisti, performer
Voice Off: Francesco Pancani
Producer: RAI Sport
CoProducer: Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia / Cineteca di Gemona (UD)
Synopsis:
Ottavio Bottecchia in the early Twenties is an unknown cyclist. A bicycle industrialist believes in him and pushes him to participate in the 1923 Giro d’Italia. In the same 1923, the Automoto chose Bottecchia. And Ottavio came second in that Tour de France. The following year Bottecchia won the Tour, wearing the yellow jersey from the first to the last stage, and repeated it in 1925. In 1926 he did not prepare properly, as usual. The following year he would like to become competitive again, but the sudden death of his beloved brother, hit by a car, suddenly changes his destiny. The day after the accident, Ottavio had a harsh confrontation with the owner of the hit car. A few days later, he had a bicycle accident that cost him his life. Through the voices of around thirty people including historians, writers, actors, and relatives of the cyclist, the reconstruction of the incredible sporting story of Ottavio Bottecchia trying to provide further details and clues about his mysterious death.