Louison Bobet

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Lore & Background

Bobet's path to Tour glory was anything but smooth. In his first Tour in 1947, the unexpected toughness forced him home on the ninth day in the Alps, crying when the going got hard. The bunch nicknamed him "cry-baby" and René Vietto mockingly called him La Bobette. The historian Dick Yates wrote: "He brought down the scorn of the press and everyone quickly wrote off this 'cry-baby'." But Bobet returned in 1948, taking the yellow jersey after the third stage and winning two stages before Gino Bartali's legendary comeback. In 1950 he finished third and won the mountain competition. Then came 1953: on Stage 18 from Gap to Briançon, Bobet left the field behind on the Col d'Izoard, climbing alone on roads still rutted and strewn with stones. As he crested the Izoard, Fausto Coppi stood by the roadside with his mistress Giulia Locatelli, and Bobet shouted thanks to Coppi for coming. He won that day by more than five minutes, took the yellow jersey, won the time trial, and finished the Tour with 14 minutes' lead. He was greeted in Paris by Maurice Garin, winner of the first Tour in 1903.

In Their Own Story

The 1954 Tour 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. In 1955 he completed his hat-trick of successive wins, having that year won the Tour of Flanders and Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. But he won the Tour 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 stronger.

Reader's Guide

Bobet's three consecutive Tour wins (1953–1955) made him the first rider in history to achieve that feat. His 1953 victory came in a Tour without stars — Kübler was not riding, nor was Coppi (who watched from the roadside), Koblet was riding badly and dropped out after a crash, and Bartali was too old. Yates' assessment: "Bobet had won the Tour and won it well but the opposition was hardly top drawer." The 1954 race was different, with a strong Belgian team, but Bobet dominated on the Izoard again. In 1955, the strongest French rider at first was Antonin Rolland, but Rolland grew weaker as the race approached the Pyrenees, and Bobet took over. His signature was not steady accumulation but explosive attacks — he would wait, sometimes for kilometres, then detonate forward. 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.

Did You Know?

• Bobet was given a bicycle at age two and after six months could ride it 6 km.
• He became Brittany champion at table tennis before focusing on cycling.
• His first Tour in 1947 earned him the nickname 'cry-baby' after he cried in the Alps and went home on the ninth day.
• In 1953, as Bobet crested the Col d'Izoard, Fausto Coppi was watching from the roadside with his mistress; Bobet shouted thanks to Coppi for coming.
• Bobet won the 1955 Tour despite a saddle boil so severe that dead tissue had to be removed to within several millimetres of vital organs.