Although Louison Bobet is remembered mostly by his three consecutive Tour de France victories (1953, 1954, 1955), he also had some success in the world of one day races.
Actually,
Louison Bobet won four of the five monuments,
he missed only the triumph at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Nevertheless, he attended La Doyenne three times, his best result was a 4th place in 1952.
But he won Milano-Sanremo and Giro di Lombardia in 1951, Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1955 and Paris-Roubaix in 1956.
Bobet rode Giro di Lombardia seven times during his career, he had other top10 results besides his victory in 1951. That year was a good one for him, he already won the other Italian monument in spring. He finished 7th at the Giro d’Italia (and won the mountain classification) , but had only a 20th place at the Tour de France.
Bobet used a quite simple tactic during “The Race of Falling Leaves“:
he put his wheel behind Fausto Coppi.
In the end phase of the race Bobet was the only foreign rider in the group of favourits, what he tried to use as an advantage when he dropped from this group deliberately. This was what the Romans called “divide et impera” [“divide and conquer”]. The Italian riders started to look each other, and the pace was slowing.
Bobet attacked when nobody expected him, and won the race ahead of Giuseppe Minardi. The third rider was Fausto Coppi.
With his victory, Louison Bobet became the first non-Italian rider to win Milano-Sanremo and Giro di Lombardia in the same year.
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