DISRAELI DOCUMENTS
Louison Bobet, French, 1925 - 1983
Louison Bobet was, by some accounts, a fairly tedious character, on the one hand crying, sulking and whinging and on the other hand preening, boasting and claiming that he did it all without drugs (while quietly admitting that he drank the contents of the little glass bottles that his soigneur gave him supposedly without knowing what they were). But he was a formidable cyclist, King of the Mountains in 1950, and outright winner of the Tour in 1953, 1954 and 1955.
His derailleur choices reflected this quixotic nature - initially he was devoted to the French Huret Competiton, then, to reflect his heroic status, Huret specially created, just for him, the, extra special, Huret Special Louison Bobet. Then, after this magnificent accolade, the self-styled and undisputed champion of everything French and cycling... defected to that most Italian of brands, Campagnolo. But, just as he didn’t allow his moods to hide his talent as a cyclist, he also did not allow his over-weening pride to prevent him from using the best equipment - and by the late 1950s that meant that you had to be riding Campagnolo.
This card was produced by the Belgian Jacques Super Chocolat concern, which, as well as producing cycle related cards, sponsored a full-blown cycling team as recently as 2007. Chocolate manufacturers have played a significant role in the history of the Tour. The Menier chocolate company created the very first pre-race cavalcade in order to distribute free chocolate bars at the 1930 Tour - a significant crowd puller in those straitened times, and the signature red and white colours of the sponsoring Poulain chocolate company were adopted for the polka dot King of the Mountains jersey in 1975.
