Louison Bobet

Louis "Louison" Bobet (; 12 March 1925 – 13 March 1983 ) was a French professional road racing cyclist. He was the first great French rider of the post-war period and the first rider to win the Tour de France in three successive years, from 1953 to 1955.

Origins Louis Bobet was born one of three children above his father's baker's shop in the rue de Montfort, Saint-Méen-le-Grand, near Rennes. His father gave him a bicycle when he was two and after six months he could ride it 6 km. Bobet's father was also called Louis and the son was called Louison – little Louis – to avoid confusion The ending -on is a diminutive in French but outside Brittany Louison refers more usually to a girl. He was known as Louis in his early years as a rider, even as a professional, until the diminutive Louison gained in popularity. and football and became Brittany champion at table tennis. in 1941. He qualified for the final of the unofficial youth championship, the Premier Pas Dunlop in 1943 at Montluçon and came sixth. The winner was Raphaël Géminiani, who would become a professional team-mate and rival.

Bobet is said to have carried messages for the Resistance during the Second World War. After D-Day he joined the army and served in eastern France. He was demobilised in December 1945. Bartali won three stages in a row and the Tour by 14 minutes. Bobet's 20 minutes on Bartali was cut to a 32-minute deficit by the time the race finished in Paris. Bobet had twice worn the yellow jersey and won two stages, however, and with the money he won he moved to Paris and bought a drapery shop for his wife.

Tour de France 1950 Bobet did not finish in 1949, struggling from the start. He dropped out on the first day in the mountains, along with four other members of the national team. In 1950 he won the national championship at Montlhéry south of Paris the week before the Tour and rode in the national team with Géminiani, the rider who had beaten him as a boy in the Premier Pas Dunlop. He and Bobet developed a rocky friendship, Géminiani's rough, instinctive character a contrast to the more thoughtful, quieter Bobet. The two argued frequently but remained friends. Géminiani, following the French habit of creating nicknames by doubling a syllable of a name referred to Bobet as Zonzon, a name that Bobet hated but tolerated. Géminiani had the confidence that Bobet lacked. The historian Bill McGann wrote: Stage 18 is etched in the history of the Tour. It was 165km from Gap to Briançon... Bobet knew this was the time to strike. One of Bobet's team-mates, Adolphe Deledda, went clear on the Vars with two other riders. Bobet stayed with the other leading climbers as they ascended the Vars. Spanish rider Jesús Loroño attacked. The alert and very capable Bobet jumped on his wheel and the pair disappeared up the mountain. Bobet was a good descender and dropped Lorono on the way down the Vars. Meanwhile, Deledda, upon being told that Bobet was on his way, eased up and waited for his captain. The two hooked up and took off across the 20km valley floor leading to the Izoard. In doing so they caught and then dispatched Deledda's two original breakaway companions. Bobet and Deledda, knowing the importance of the moment, were men on a mission. Deledda, fulfilling the team contract in both letter and especially in spirit, buried himself towing Bobet to the great mountain. Bobet flew up the Izoard as if he had wings. Bobet had finally arrived as the premier stage racer in the world. As he crested the Izoard there was a very well known cycling fan by the side of the road. Fausto Coppi with his mistress, Giulia Locatelli (the "woman in white"), was watching the race. As he rode past the great man, Bobet shouted thanks to Coppi for coming.

He won that day by more than five minutes in Briançon, took the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification, then won the time trial and finished the Tour with 14 minutes' lead. He was greeted in Paris by Maurice Garin, Koblet was riding badly and dropped out after a crash. Bartali was too old. Yates' assessment is that "Bobet had won the Tour and won it well but the opposition was hardly top drawer.

Tour de France 1954

The 1954 race was different, without Italians but with a strong team from Belgium. The race started fast and didn't ease up. Bobet took the lead after four days, then lost it on day eight. The jersey changed hands until Bobet again dominated on the Izoard. Winning the time-trial cemented his lead and he got to Paris 15 minutes before Kübler A few weeks later he became world champion in Germany. He left Stella after eight years to ride for Mercier, the team riding bicycles carrying Bobet's name and sold by him but made in the Mercier factory in St-Étienne.

Tour de France 1955 Bobet completed his hat-trick of successive wins in 1955, having that year won the Tour of Flanders and Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. The strongest French rider at first was Antonin Rolland and the manager, Marcel Bidot, asked the team to ride for him. Rolland, however, grew weaker as the race approached the Pyrenees. Bobet won the Tour but with a saddle boil that needed surgery. "His flesh was full of holes", said a report. "Dead tissue had to be removed to within several millimetres of vital organs. Nobody dared speak the word 'cancer'" Bobet believed that enduring the sores during the Tour made him a lesser rider for the rest of his life.

He learned to fly a plane while forced not to ride.

Tour de France 1958 The 1958 was the last that Bobet finished. One account said:

He has 400,000 kilometres in his legs. He has conquered glory and fortune but he is badly ill. Despite the formal advice of his doctor, he has decided to ride the 1958 Tour de France. He will suffer. He knows that. In the heart of the gigantic rocks of the Cassé Déserte, Bob is arced on his bicycle, his kidneys crushed by the effort and his head, like a heavy, painful balance, oscillates above his handlebars. The sun beats down on him. Around him, the whole mountain smokes like a giant witch's cauldron. As he breathes, what burns his throat and his lungs is the dust that rises around him... Abandoned, alone, without help, streaming with sweat, he has no other weapon against his adversaries but the mountain, the bad weather and his crazy willpower. The British professional Brian Robinson called Bobet "a private man and a little moody" and said he would sulk if things went wrong. The French journalist René de Latour said of Bobet in Sporting Cyclist that "he didn't look good on a bike" and that he had "the legs of a football [soccer] player".

Bobet spoke out against French involvement in a war against communists in Indo-China. He said he wasn't a Marxist but a pacifist. Géminiani said Bobet lacked humility. "He really thought that, after him, there'd be no more cycling in France", he said. Bobet occasionally talked of himself in the third person. The race organiser, Jacques Goddet wrote: It produced a real drama. Our contract with Sofil was crumbling away. If the news had got out, the commercial effect would have been disastrous for the manufacturer. I remember debating it with him a good part of the night. Louison was always exquisitely courteous but his principles were as hard as the granite blocks of his native Brittany coast. Bobet insisted he never took drugs. But the journalist and race organiser, Jean Leulliot, remembered a dinner organised by Jacques Goddet and Félix Lévitan, the organisers of the Tour de France, for the race's former winners. Leulliot wrote:

One table attracted particular attention. Around it were Anquetil, Merckx and Bobet, 13 victories in the Tour between them. The conversation at the table was particularly lively and Louison Bobet was being challenged for saying that he had never taken the slightest drug or stimulant. He was obliged to admit that he had drunk the small bottles prepared for him by his soigneur at the time without knowing exactly what they contained. Which produced laughter from Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx.

Bobet and Britain Bobet presented prizes at the annual presentation of the British Best All-Rounder time-trial competition at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in 1954. He gave a yellow jersey to veteran competitor Vic Gibbons. Bobet flew from Paris to London in a de Havilland Dove chartered by a London timber-merchant and cycling enthusiast, Vic Jenner. Jock Wadley, the editor of Sporting Cyclist was with Jenner. He remember that the two Britons arrived at Le Bourget airport without having brought passports – but that immigration staff gave them no attention because they were too busy trying to get an autograph from Bobet. The Quiberon centre was purchased by Accor in 1984 and became the flagship of its Thalassa Sea & Spa brand. He fell ill, however, and died of cancer the idea of village postmaster Raymond Quérat.

Major results

1947 1st Circuit des Boucles de la Seine 1948 4th Overall Tour de France 1st Stages 6 & 12 Held after Stages 3 & 6–13 1949 1st Overall Tour de l'Ouest 1st Critérium des As 4th À travers Lausanne 8th Grand Prix des Nations 9th La Flèche Wallonne 1950 1st Road race, National Road Championships 1st Critérium des As 1st Grand Prix de l'Écho d'Alger 3rd Overall Tour de France 1st Mountains classification 1st Stage 18 3rd Overall Roma–Napoli–Roma 5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships 9th Milan–San Remo 1951 1st Road race, National Road Championships 1st Milan–San Remo 1st Giro di Lombardia 1st Critérium National de la Route 1st Grand Prix du Locle 1st Stage 17 Tour de France 2nd Paris–Roubaix 3rd Coppa Bernocchi 3rd Critérium des As 4th La Flèche Wallonne 6th Overall Roma–Napoli–Roma 7th Overall Giro d'Italia 1st Mountains classification 1st Stage 17 7th Overall Paris–Nice 1st Stages 2 & 4b 7th Liège–Bastogne–Liège 1952 1st Overall Paris–Nice 1st Stages 2, 3, 5 & 6 1st Critérium National de la Route 1st Grand Prix des Nations 2nd Grand Prix du Midi Libre 2nd Critérium des As 3rd Gran Premio di Lugano 4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège 4th Trofeo Baracchi (with Jean Bobet) 5th Paris–Tours 6th Tour of Flanders 7th Paris–Roubaix 8th Road race, UCI Road World Championships 9th Giro di Lombardia 1953 1st Overall Tour de France 1st Stages 18 & 20 (ITT) 1st Circuit de l'Aulne 1st Critérium des As 3rd Road race, National Road Championships 3rd Overall Tour de Romandie 1st Stage 4 4th Paris–Roubaix 4th Tour of Flanders 5th Critérium National de la Route 6th Mont Faron Hill Climb 8th Road race, UCI Road World Championships 1954 1st Road race, UCI Road World Championships 1st Overall Tour de France 1st Stages 2, 18 & 21b (ITT) 1st Grand Prix cycliste d'Espéraza 1st Critérium des As 2nd Paris–Tours 2nd Mont Faron Hill Climb 2nd Trofeo Baracchi (with Jacques Anquetil) 5th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré 1st Stage 7 9th Grand Prix de Monaco 1955 1st Overall Tour de France 1st Stages 3 & 11 1st Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré 1st Stages 3, 5 & 6b (ITT) 1st Overall Tour de Luxembourg 1st Stages 2 & 3 1st Tour of Flanders 1st Stage 3 Paris–Nice 2nd Road race, National Road Championships 3rd Paris–Roubaix 4th Critérium National de la Route 1956 1st Paris–Roubaix 1st Stage 10a (TTT) Vuelta a España 2nd Paris–Camembert 2nd Circuit des Boucles de la Seine 3rd Road race, National Road Championships 3rd Paris–Tours 4th Critérium National de la Route 5th Critérium des As 7th Giro di Lombardia 8th Road race, UCI Road World Championships 1957 1st Genoa–Nice

2nd Overall Giro d'Italia 1st Stage 15 Held after Stages 2–7, 12, 13 & 15 2nd Paris–Tours 2nd Critérium National de la Route 2nd Grand Prix Stan Ockers 2nd Grand Prix de Monaco 3rd Critérium des As 4th Tre Valli Varesine 5th Overall Paris–Nice 6th Trofeo Baracchi (with Albert Bouvet) 8th Mont Faron Hill Climb 9th Liège–Bastogne–Liège 1958

3rd Circuit de l'Aulne 4th Overall Giro d'Italia 4th Circuit des Boucles de la Seine 6th Paris–Brussels 7th Overall Tour de France 8th Critérium National de la Route 9th Overall Four Days of Dunkirk 10th Milan–San Remo 10th Giro di Toscana 1959 1st Overall Gran Premio Ciclomotoristico 1st Mountains classification 1st Stages 1, 2, 3, 5b & 9 1st Bordeaux–Paris 2nd Circuit de l'Aulne 5th Overall Giro di Sardegna 5th Trofeo Baracchi (with Fausto Coppi) 10th Paris–Brussels 1960 1st Overall Gran Premio Ciclomotoristico 1st Stages 1b, 2b, 3b, 4b, 5b & 7b (ITT) 4th Bordeaux–Paris 6th Manx Trophy 7th Circuit de l'Aulne 8th Grand Prix Stan Ockers 10th Circuit des Onze Villes 1961 2nd Bordeaux–Paris 5th Genoa–Nice 6th Circuit de l'Aulne 7th Overall Grand Prix du Midi Libre 9th Overall Tour de l'Aude 1st Stage 3 10th Mont Faron Hill Climb

Grand Tour general classification results timeline Grand Tour 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 Vuelta a España — — —NH —Not held — DNF — — — — — Giro d'Italia — — — — —7 — DNF — — —24 — — — Tour de FranceNH DNF4 DNF3 20 —111 — —7 DNF — —

Classics results timeline Monument 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 Milan–San Remo — — — 1891 DSQ 53 13 11 — 1710 — — 20 Tour of Flanders — — — — — —64 141 — — — — — — Paris–Roubaix — — — 32 15274 3831 65 27 21 — — Liège–Bastogne–Liège — — — — —74 — — — —9 — — — — Giro di Lombardia — — 12 — 3319 — — —7 — 24 21 — —

Major championships results timeline 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 World Championships — — — —5 14881 DNF822 — — DNF National Championships — — — —11 —3 —23 — — — — —

+ Legend — Did not compete DNF Did not finish DSQ Disqualified NH Not Held