Jean Bobet is a cultured and articulate man. His book is an evocation of his famous brother, Louison, and a memoir of the traditions of the peloton and the workings of pro cycling in the fifties, the Golden Age of Continental road racing. The brothers' lives intertwined, the clever academic and the iconic champion. Everyone wanted to see Louison, to touch him, to read about him. He was the first to win the Tour de France for three consecutive years. Flamboyant, for some he could do no wrong. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, the writing is largely uncritical of its main subject, but he was not beyond rebuke from his younger sibling.
Louison Bobet's career ran in parallel with French society as it came to terms with occupation and collaboration together with post-war social and economic modernisation. However, by the end of the decade there was a shift in cycling hierarchy. Koblet and Kubler were gone. Coppi died in 1960 and Bobet retired not long afterwards. Jean Bobet himself quit cycling in 1958 disillusioned by the influence of drugs on the peloton. He became a journalist, kept the secret until he could stand it no more and joined his brother in his thalasotherapy institute.
Jean Bobet offers unique insight into the mores of pro cycling when in its pomp. His book is memorable and emblematic of the period yet, more than that, it overflows with the intimacies and delight of cycling for its own sake