Hugo Koblet
Encyclopedia
Hugo Koblet was a Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 champion cyclist. He won the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...

 and the Giro d'Italia
Giro d'Italia
The Giro d'Italia , also simply known as The Giro, is a long distance road bicycle racing stage race for professional cyclists held over three weeks in May/early June in and around Italy. The Giro is one of the three Grand Tours , and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar...

 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.

Origins

Hugo Koblet was the son of Adolf and Héléna Koblet , bakers in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

. 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.

Professional success

Koblet won the 1950 Swiss road championship and then became the first non-Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 to win the Giro d'Italia
Giro d'Italia
The Giro d'Italia , also simply known as The Giro, is a long distance road bicycle racing stage race for professional cyclists held over three weeks in May/early June in and around Italy. The Giro is one of the three Grand Tours , and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar...

. In 1951 he defeated Fausto Coppi
Fausto Coppi
Angelo Fausto Coppi, , was the dominant international cyclist of the years each side of the Second World War. His successes earned him the title Il Campionissimo, or champion of champions...

 to win the Grand Prix des Nations
Grand Prix des Nations
The Grand Prix des Nations was an individual time trial for professional racing cyclists. Held annually in France, it was instituted in 1932 and often regarded as the unofficial time trial championship of the world and as a Classic cycle race. The race was the idea of a Parisian newspaper editor...

, an individual time trial
Individual time trial
An individual time trial is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock . There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes, and team time trials...

 with the status of unofficial world championship. The most important victory came that year at the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...

. 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
Agen
Agen is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in Aquitaine in south-western France. It lies on the river Garonne southeast of Bordeaux. It is the capital of the department.-Economy:The town has a higher level of unemployment than the national average...

, 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
Louison Bobet
Louis 'Louison' Bobet 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...

, double winner Gino Bartali
Gino Bartali
Gino Bartali, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was the most renowned Italian cyclist before the Second World War, having won the Giro d'Italia twice and the Tour de France in 1938...

 and Fausto Coppi
Fausto Coppi
Angelo Fausto Coppi, , was the dominant international cyclist of the years each side of the Second World War. His successes earned him the title Il Campionissimo, or champion of champions...

." The time differences when the Tour ended at the Parc des Princes
Parc des Princes
The Parc des Princes is an all-seater football stadium located in the southwest of Paris, France. The venue, with a seating capacity of 48,712 spectators, has been the home of French football club Paris Saint-Germain since 1974. The current Parc des Princes was inaugurated on 4 June 1972, endowed...

 meant he had beaten Raphaël Géminiani
Raphael Geminiani
Raphaël Géminiani is a French former road bicycle racer. He had six podium finishes in the Grand Tours. He is one of four children of Italian immigrants who moved to Clermont-Ferrand. He worked in a cycle shop and started racing as a boy...

 by 12 km, Lucien Lazarides
Lucien Lazarides
Lucien Lazaridès was a French professional road bicycle racer. Lazaridès was born with Greek nationality, but became French in 1929. Lucien Lazaridès was an older brother of cyclist Apo Lazaridès. Lazaridès won the Dauphiné Libéré in 1949, and reached the podium of the Tour de France in 1951...

 by 18, Bartali by 18 and Coppi by 27.

1951 Tour de France

The 1951 Tour de France started in Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...

, the second time outside Paris. The main riders were Louison Bobet for France, Fausto Coppi and an ageing Gino Bartali for Italy. Coppi was hindered by grief at the death of his brother, Serse. Both Coppi and Bobet were pushed out of the running when Koblet won the time-trial from La Guerche to Angers. Their position was confirmed four days later when Koblet attacked on a gentle descent after two hours of the stage from Brive to Agen, a day expected to be a quiet journey towards the Pyrenees. He won again at Luchon, Montpellier and Geneva.

Decline and death

Hugo Koblet was a handsome man whose fame brought beautiful women and a lifestyle that affected his career. He was "the most charming of men to talk to," said Jock Wadley
Jock Wadley
John Borland Wadley was an English journalist whose magazines and reporting opened Continental cycle racing to fans in Britain....

. René de Latour
René de Latour
René de Latour was a Franco-American sports journalist, race director of the Tour de l'Avenir cycle race, and correspondent of the British magazine, Sporting Cyclist, to which he contributed to 120 of the 131 issues.-Background:René de Latour was born in 42nd Street, New York...

 wrote in Sporting Cyclist
Sporting Cyclist
Sporting Cyclist was a British cycling A4-sized magazine originally called Coureur. It began in 1957 and closed after 131 issues in October 1968.-Coureur:...

: "Koblet had not an enemy at all. His ready and kindly smile came from deep down inside, and one knows from the start that this was a man without rancour, a rare thing to say of anybody who has raced in top competition on the road where the intense physical struggle often leads to jealousy and dispute."

He never rode again at the same level as the 1951 Tour de France. Jean Bobet
Jean Bobet
Jean Bobet is a French former road bicycle racer. He is the younger brother of Louison Bobet. Less talented, he did nevetheless win the world students' championship as an amateur and then, as a professional, Paris–Nice in 1955, Genoa-Nice in 1956 and the Circuit du Morbihan in 1953. He came third...

 said Koblet began to suffer in the mountains at 2,000m, then 1,500, then at 1,000 until "we saw him unable to ride over the smallest hill.". The author Olivier Dazat said photographs showed not the handsome man he had been but a rider suddenly aged, worried and preoccupied. René de Latour wrote: "There is a question mark about Hugo Koblet's life, the mystery of why he was never as good again as in the 1951 Tour. After this year, his pedalling had less power. Soon after that magnificent win, Koblet was invited to Mexico to follow the national amateur tour. When he came back he was still, it seemed, the same incredibly easy pedaller. But the efficiency was partly gone. He visited specialists and took courses of treatment, but without any real success. He went to Mexico in 1951 [and] never came back from the land of guitars and sombreros. And nobody knows why!"

He came second in the Giro d'Italia in 1951 and 1952 and retired in 1958.

Six years after his retirement, Koblet died at 39, four days after a car crash, with speculation that his death may have been suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

. He had been profligate with his money and was in debt. He was being pursued for unpaid tax and his marriage had broken up. A witness, Émile Isler, saw Koblet driving his white Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...

 at 120-140kmh. between Zürich and Esslingen
Esslingen, Switzerland
Esslingen is a village in the municipality of Egg, Switzerland, in the canton of Zürich. It is located in the Pfannenstiel region, approximately 15 km southeast of Zürich. In the local dialect it is called Esslinge.The population is 1565...

. He drove past a pear tree, turned then drove back. He passed it again finally turned a third time and drove into it.

Personal life

Koblet married a 22-year-old model, Sonja Buhl, in 1953. They spent their honeymoon in Spain and bought a villa at Forch, overlooking the lake at Zürich. Pirelli
Pirelli
Pirelli & C. SpA is a diverse multinational company based in Milan, Italy. The company, the world’s fifth largest tyre manufacturer, is present in over 160 countries, has 20 manufacturing sites around the world and a network of around 10,000 distributors and retailers.Founded in Milan in 1872,...

 and Alfa-Romeo employed him in South America but the couple returned, Koblet disappointed and confused. The marriage began to break up. His confusion included forgetting that he had signed a contract for 7 million lire
Lire
Lire is a French literary magazine covering both French and foreign literature. It was founded in 1975 by Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber and Bernard Pivot.-External links:*...

 for a comb to be made in his name in Italy. He and Sonja parted and Koblet moved alone into a studio apartment alongside a garage he opened near the Oerlikon velodrome.

He asked Sonja for a reconciliation in 1964 but she refused. It was later that year that he died. Sonja refused her husband's inheritance rather than take on his debts.

Nickname

Koblet always carried a comb and a bottle of eau de cologne
Eau de Cologne
Eau de Cologne or simply Cologne is a toiletry, a perfume in a style that originated from Cologne, Germany. It is nowadays a generic term for scented formulations in typical concentration of 2-5% essential oils. However as of today cologne is a blend of extracts, alcohol, and water...

 when he raced, sometimes combing his hair before the finish, always cleaning his face before meeting photographers. Philippe Brunel wrote in L'Equipe
L'Équipe
L'Équipe is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sports, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of football , rugby, motorsports and cycling...

 that at the end of his long ride to Agen in 1951, "followers were astonished to see him sit up, blow kisses to girls and take out of his pocket a sponge soaked in water. He was barely across the line when he rinsed his face in Perrier
Perrier
Perrier is a brand of bottled mineral water made from a spring in Vergèze in the Gard département of France. The spring is naturally carbonated...

, combed his hair, then started his stopwatch." The music hall artist Jacques Grello nicknamed him the Pédaleur de Charme in Parisien Libéré in 1951.

Film

Koblet's life was the subject of a cinema film, Hugo Koblet: Pédaleur de Charme, in 2010. It starred Manuel Löwensberg as Koblet, Sarah Bühlmann as his wife Sonja, Chantal Le Moign and Dominique Müller. It attributed his decline to "doping abuse." It was directed by Daniel von Aarburg, who included archive film and interviews with Koblet's contemporaries.

Anecdote

In 1951, I was 18. One evening after the race ended, I was hanging about outside a hotel hoping to see the riders when the boss asked me to carry Koblet's suitcases to his room. I was so proud! For me, he was the greatest of them all. Well, when I went back downstairs again, I met him. He thanked me very politely and gave me two Swiss francs, an enormous amount at the time. I kept the coin for a long time, like a good-luck charm, swearing I would never spend it. And I only did, three years later, to buy a copy of Miroir Sprint which had Ferdi Kubler, my other idol, on the cover.
- Willy Schweizer, former president of the Swiss cycling union,52 years later.

Race record

1947
national pursuit champion

1948
national track pursuit champion
Six days of Chicago (with Walter Diggelmann
Walter Diggelmann
Walter Diggelmann was a Swiss professional road bicycle racer. Diggelmann won one stage in the 1952 Tour de France.- Palmarès :1938194019411943194819491952- External links :*...

)

1949
national track pursuit champion
Six days of New York (with Walter Diggelmann
Walter Diggelmann
Walter Diggelmann was a Swiss professional road bicycle racer. Diggelmann won one stage in the 1952 Tour de France.- Palmarès :1938194019411943194819491952- External links :*...

)

1950
national track pursuit champion
Giro d'Italia
1950 Giro d'Italia
The 1950 Giro d'Italia of cycling was held from 24 May to 13 June 1950, consisting of 18 stages. It was won by the Swiss Hugo Koblet, first non-Italian cyclist to win the general classification of the Giro.- Final classment:- Maglia rosa holders:...

:
Winner overall classification
Winner mountains classification
Winner stages 6 and 8
Tour de Suisse
Tour de Suisse
The Tour de Suisse is a UCI World Tour stage race held annually in June. The race debuted in 1933 and has evolved in timing, duration and sponsorship. With the Critérium du Dauphiné, it is a proving ground for the Tour de France, and part of the UCI World Ranking calendar...


1951
national track pursuit champion
Critérium des As
Tour de France
1951 Tour de France
The 1951 Tour de France was the 38th Tour de France, taking place from July 4 to July 29, 1951. It consisted of 24 stages over 4690 km, ridden at an average speed of 32.949 km/h....

:
Winner overall classification
Winner stages 7, 11, 14, 16 and 22
Grand Prix des Nations
Grand Prix des Nations
The Grand Prix des Nations was an individual time trial for professional racing cyclists. Held annually in France, it was instituted in 1932 and often regarded as the unofficial time trial championship of the world and as a Classic cycle race. The race was the idea of a Parisian newspaper editor...

Giro d'Italia
1951 Giro d'Italia
The 1951 Giro d'Italia of cycling was held from 19 May to 10 June 1951, consisting in 20 stages. It was won by Fiorenzo Magni.- Final classment:- Maglia rosa holders:...

:
Winner stage 19
6th place overall classification

1952
national track pursuit champion
1st Züri-Metzgete
Giro d'Italia
1952 Giro d'Italia
The 1952 Giro d'Italia of was the 35th edition of the Giro d'Italia stage bicycle race, held from 17 May to 8 June 1952, consisting of 20 stages. It was won by Fausto Coppi, who returned from injury and was at the apex of his career.-Final classification:...

:
8th place overall classification

1953
national track pursuit champion
Tour de Suisse
Tour de Romandie
Tour de Romandie
The Tour de Romandie is a stage race which is part of the UCI World Tour. It runs in the Romandie region, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. It began in 1947, to coincide with the 50-year anniversary of Swiss Cycling....

Giro d'Italia
1953 Giro d'Italia
The 1953 Giro d'Italia was the 36th edition of Giro, held from 12 May to 2 June 1953, consisting of 21 stages. It was won by Fausto Coppi ....

:
2nd place overall classification
Winner stage 7B

1954
Züri-Metzgete
Giro d'Italia
1954 Giro d'Italia
The 1954 Giro d'Italia of cycling was held from 21 May to 13 June 1954, consisting of 22 stages for a total of 4,396 km, ridden at an average speed of 33.563 km/h. It was won by the Swiss Carlo Clerici.- Final classment :- Maglia rosa holders:...

:
2nd place overall classification
Winner stages 15 and 21

1955
Tour de Suisse
  1st Swiss Road Race Championship
Giro d'Italia
1955 Giro d'Italia
The 1955 Giro d'Italia of cycling was held from 14 May to 5 June 1955, consisting of 21 stages. It was won by Fiorenzo Magni, the oldest winner of the Giro, at age 35....

:
10th place overall classification
Winner stage 21

1956
Vuelta a España
1956 Vuelta a España
The 11th Vuelta a España , a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from April 29 to May 13, 1956. It consisted of 17 stages covering a total of 3,531 km, and was won by Angelo Conterno of the Bianchi cycling team...

:
Winner stage 9


Grand Tour results timeline

1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956
Giro
Giro d'Italia
The Giro d'Italia , also simply known as The Giro, is a long distance road bicycle racing stage race for professional cyclists held over three weeks in May/early June in and around Italy. The Giro is one of the three Grand Tours , and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar...

1 6 8 2 2 10 DNE
Stages won 2 1 0 1 2 1
Mountains classification 1 NR NR NR NR NR
Points classification N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Tour
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...

DNE 1
1951 Tour de France
The 1951 Tour de France was the 38th Tour de France, taking place from July 4 to July 29, 1951. It consisted of 24 stages over 4690 km, ridden at an average speed of 32.949 km/h....

DNE DNF-10
1953 Tour de France
The 1953 Tour de France was the 40th Tour de France, taking place from July 3 to July 26, 1953. It consisted of 22 stages over 4479 km, ridden at an average speed of 34.593 km/h....

DNF-13
1954 Tour de France
The 1954 Tour de France was the 41st Tour de France, taking place from July 8 to August 1, 1954. It consisted of 23 stages over 4656 km, ridden at an average speed of 33.229 km/h....

DNE DNE
Stages won 5 0 0
Mountains classification 3 NR NR
Points classification N/A N/A N/A NR NR
Vuelta
Vuelta a España
The Vuelta a España is a three-week road bicycle racing stage race that is one of the three "Grand Tours" of Europe and part of the UCI World Ranking calendar. The race lasts three weeks and attracts cyclists from around the world. The race is broken into day-long segments, called stages...

DNE N/A N/A N/A N/A DNE DNF
Stages won 1
Mountains classification NR
Points classification N/A N/A N/A


External links

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