The revelation of Bottecchia

The second stage of the 1923 Tour de France between Le Havre and Cherbourg revealed a little-known Italian rider by the name of Ottavio Bottecchia. France's Henri Pelissier, who finished 10th that day, perfectly recalled that stage finish: “A rider surged from the middle of the road. A brainless kid for sure. We were more than two kilometres from the finish line and he was now the perfect target. Sure. But he did not look back once. He held us 50 metres at bay and it was impossible to catch him. I remember shouting to Francis when I got off the bike: well, this is some rider! But who is he? Where does he come from? We had been sitting at the same table for three days and he hardly said a word. He was called Ottavio Bottecchia and he did not speak a word of French. And in this Tour he must have felt even more isolated. It was hard to make a connection with him. He looked like a shy peasant but on a bike, what a great style he had!”
So much style that Bottecchia would finish second to Pelissier in that edition before winning the 1924 and 1925 Tours. As for Henri Pelissier, furious against Desgrange for being prevented from wearing two jerseys, he quit the Tour in the 1924 stage starting from Cherbourg before delivering to French reporter Albert Londres the first ever doping confession.