“I was a special cyclist”estimated the youngest, Jean, born in 1930, five years after his brother, Louison. “First, I was a curiosity that was described as an intellectual. It was written on my face: I wore glasses. And then, I was the brother of the other. It was written everywhere: Louison Bobet was THE champion. »
Jean Bobet, whom the writer Antoine Blondin nicknamed “the man in the brother’s mask”died at the age of 92, announced on Saturday the National Union of Professional Cyclists (UNCP), of which he was one of the founders.
Jean BOBET co-founder of the UNCP with Henry ANGLADE died at the age of 92. Pro runners, grateful… https://t.co/kLOmDEJ3Qt
Winner of Paris-Nice in 1955, third in Milan-Sanremo the same year, Jean Bobet led a most honorable career, accompanied by two participations in the Tour de France (14e in 1955, 15e in 1957) and three at the Giro, before hanging up in 1959.
“I harbored many more moods than I counted successes”he recognized however in one of the books, a dozen, which he wrote with elegance (he obtained the Grand Prize for sports literature), finesse and precision.
“He is the great victim of the Tour”
After his career, he turned to journalism (The team, RTL, where he directed the sports department) and was even approached for a time to direct the Tour de France. But he did not resist the call of his brother, who had embarked on thalassotherapy.
After Louison’s death in 1983, Jean Bobet became the guardian of the memory of the Breton champion. As vigilant as when he turned away the philosopher and literary critic Roland Barthes, on the evening of the Ventoux du Tour stage in 1955, by closing the bedroom door to him. “After the work as a team member on the road, I got down to another job on arrival, that of watchdog attached to the close protection of the champion. »
In his most famous work, MythologiesBarthes also evokes the brother of the man he described as “promethean hero” : “Louison’s double is also its negative; he is the great victim of the Tour. He owes his eldest the total sacrifice of his person, as a brother. This runner suffers from a major infirmity: he thinks. »