The cyclist argued with a man linked to the fascist regime. Then he was found on the ground under mysterious circumstances: a secret that his wife, Catina Zambon, kept to herself until the end
Ottavio Bottecchia remained for twelve days lying on a bed in the Gemona hospital, between delirium and some flashes of lucidity, before the desperate eyes of his wife Caterina Zambon, known as Catina. A few words he managed to stammer. «It was an illness. An illness… An illness…». And she, stretching out her caring hand to dry his sweat and trying to reassure him, replied that “yes, an illness… It was an illness…”. Then, exhausted by pain, now unconscious, on 15 June 1927 Ottavio fell asleep forever, at the age of 33, bequeathing to his Catina that six-letter noun that she, faithful for eternity, handed down to history: illness.