Hugo Koblet
Koblet at the 1956 Ronde van Nederland
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Hugo Koblet |
| Nickname | Beautiful Hugo, Le pédaleur de charme |
| Born |
21 March 1925 Zürich, Switzerland |
| Died | 6 November 1964 (aged 39) Egg, Canton of Zurich, Switzerland |
| Team information | |
| Discipline | Road and Track |
| Role | Rider |
| Rider type | Climber |
| Professional team(s) | |
| 1946 | Amberg/Mercier-R. Lapebie |
| 1947 | Amberg/Fuchs |
| 1948 | Tebag/Fiorelli |
| 1949 | Cilo |
| 1950–1954 | Cilo/Guerra/La Perle-Hutchinson |
| 1955 | Faema/Cilo |
| 1956 | Cilo/Saint Raphaël-R. Geminiani-Dunlop |
| 1958 | Cilo |
| 1959 | Cilo/Ghigi |
| Major wins | |
Hugo Koblet (pronounced [ˈhuːɡo ˈkoːblɛt]; 21 March 1925 – 6 November 1964) was a Swiss champion cyclist. He won the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia as well as competing in six-day and pursuit races on the track. He won 70 races as a professional. He died in a car accident amid speculation that he had committed suicide.
Hugo Koblet was the son of Adolf and Héléna Koblet (pronounced Kob-lett), bakers in Zürich. He lived with his mother, a widow, and with an elder brother. His brother baked bread and cakes and Hugo was restricted to sweeping the floor and making deliveries by bicycle. He left the bakery at 17 and worked as a trainee mechanic at the Oerlikon velodrome in the city. His first race was a 10 km hill-climb, which he won. That caught the attention of Léo Amberg, a former Tour de France rider who had come second in the Tour of Switzerland. Amberg insisted he ride the track and Koblet became national amateur pursuit champion in 1945. He turned professional in 1946 and won the New York and Chicago six-day races. It was after the races that he developed a love of the United States, driving to California and Florida. He had learned English by watching American and British films. He won the Swiss pursuit championship every year from 1947 to 1954. In 1947 he finished third and in 1951 and 1954 second in the world championship.
Koblet won the 1950 Swiss road championship and then became the first non-Italian to win the Giro d'Italia. In 1951 he defeated Fausto Coppi to win the Grand Prix des Nations, an individual time trial with the status of unofficial world championship. The most important victory came that year at the Tour de France. He won overall and took five stages – two time-trials, two conventional stages and another in the mountains. In 1951 he "rode the best off his wheel" between Brive and Agen, said Cycling Plus, "just 20 miles into the stage, then covered 88 miles on his own to win by three minutes. This was despite a frantic chase by such greats as triple Tour winner Louison Bobet, double winner Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi." The time differences when the Tour ended at the Parc des Princes meant he had beaten Raphaël Géminiani by 12 km, Lucien Lazarides by 18, Bartali by 18 and Coppi by 27.
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