Jean Bobet

Born

1930-02-22

Died

2022-07-27

Birthplace

Saint-Méen-le-Grand, Ille-et-Vilaine, France

Biography

Jean Bobet (22 February 1930 – 29 July 2022) was a French road bicycle racer. He was the younger brother of Louison Bobet. Less successful, he nevertheless won 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 in Milan–San Remo in 1953. He rode from 1949 to 1959, including all three Grand Tours. He and his brother retired from racing after a car carrying them crashed outside Paris in the autumn of 1960. Louison went into business ventures and Jean became a journalist. He became head of sport at Radio Luxembourg, wrote for L'Équipe and then Le Monde. He made occasional contributions to Miroir du Cyclisme and still (2008) appears on television, notably in retrospective programmes. He was instrumental in forming a museum in his brother's memory in Saint-Méen-le-Grand. He wrote several books, including Louison Bobet, une vélobiographie (Éditions Gallimard, 1958), an account of life with his brother in Demain on roule (Editions de la Table Ronde, 2004), translated as Tomorrow We Ride (Mousehold Press, 2008), and a history of Octave Lapize, one of the first stars of the Tour de France: Lapize, celui-là était un 'as' (Editions de la Table Ronde, 2003), translated as Lapize ... now there was an ace (Mousehold Press, 2010). Source: Article "Jean Bobet" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.