Challenge Desgrange-Colombo

The Challenge Desgrange-Colombo was a season-long road bicycle racing competition between 1948 and 1958. Named after Henri Desgrange and Emilio Colombo, the competition was organised by the newspapers L'Équipe, La Gazzetta dello Sport, Het Nieuwsblad-Sportwereld and Les Sports. It marked early co-operation between L'Équipe and La Gazzetta dello Sport which lasts to this day.

Riders' performances in the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, Milan – San Remo, Paris–Roubaix, Ronde van Vlaanderen, La Flèche Wallonne, Paris–Brussels, Paris–Tours and the Giro di Lombardia counted towards the competition. The Tour de Suisse was added in 1949, Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 1951, the Vuelta a España in 1958.

The first winner was Belgian Alberic Schotte (winner of the 1948 Ronde van Vlaanderen and also World road race champion that year). The 1949 version was won by the Italian Fausto Coppi while 1950 went to the Swiss Ferdi Kubler and 1951 to Louison Bobet. Kubler won the Challenge Desgrange-Colombo three times (he added victories in 1952 and 1954) - a record equalled by Fred de Bruyne, who won from 1956 to 1958.

Year First Second Third Fourth Fifth
1948 Briek Schotte Fermo Camellini Gino Bartali Fiorenzo Magni Vito Ortelli
1949 Fausto Coppi Gino Bartali Fiorenzo Magni Nedo Logli Adolfo Leoni
1950 Ferdi Kübler Fiorenzo Magni Hugo Koblet Fausto Coppi Gino Bartali
1951 Louison Bobet Ferdi Kübler Fiorenzo Magni Hugo Koblet Gino Bartali
1952 Ferdi Kübler Fausto Coppi Stan Ockers Briek Schotte Jean Robic
1953 Loretto Petrucci Louison Bobet Stan Ockers Pasquale Fornara Ferdi Kübler
1954 Ferdi Kübler Raymond Impanis Louison Bobet Germain Derijcke Roger Decock
1955 Stan Ockers Louison Bobet Jean Brankart Hugo Koblet Germain Derijcke
1956 Fred De Bruyne Stan Ockers Jean Forestier André Vlayen Louison Bobet
1957 Fred De Bruyne Raymond Impanis Gastone Nencini Louison Bobet Miguel Poblet
1958 Fred De Bruyne Rik van Looy Jacques Anquetil Miguel Poblet Ercole Baldini
Road bicycle racing season-long competitions
  • Challenge Desgrange-Colombo (1948–1958)
  • Super Prestige Pernod International (1958–1988)
  • UCI Road World Rankings (1984–2004)
  • UCI Road World Cup (1989–2004)
  • UCI Women's Road World Cup (1998–present)
  • UCI ProTour (2005–2008)
  • UCI World Tour (2009–present)


Famous quotes containing the word challenge:

    “If the technology cannot shoulder the entire burden of strategic change, it nevertheless can set into motion a series of dynamics that present an important challenge to imperative control and the industrial division of labor. The more blurred the distinction between what workers know and what managers know, the more fragile and pointless any traditional relationships of domination and subordination between them will become.”
    —Shoshana Zuboff (b. 1951)