Tomorrow, we ride…

That’s what my brother Louison and I used to say as we arranged to meet: every day while we were racing cyclists, and then just on Sundays when we weren’t competing any more. We kept on riding until the end of his life, because even then – especially then, perhaps – we always understood each other best on bikes. We had always needed a bike beneath us. In the words of the song, we took the high road and the low road: in cycling, the glory days always have less glorious ones on their tail. Thanks to Louison, I had the good fortune to ride with him through the golden years, the 50s: the years of post-war reconstruction, of Coppi and Bartali, of Kubler and Koblet, of Gaul and Van Steenbergen, Anquetil and Darrigade. These are names that speak of the aristocracy of cycling, and the fierceness of the competition. Every day, Louison and I took pleasure in cycling together, whether on our intimate journeys through Brittany or the Alps, or in the frenzy of the Tour de France or Giro d’Italia. Jean Bobet

“Mousehold Press and Sport and Publicity have together published a succession of outstanding books in recent years, and this latest is no exception. Jean Bobet, was an Anglophile who did much to encourage those early British pioneers on the Continent. His brother, Louison, was a cycling superstar and the fi rst ever rider to win the Tour de France three years in succesion. Their story is magical and with Jean’s love of our lanquage it is high time an English edition was published. It is a marvellous read.” Phil Liggett, ”The Voice of Cycling”

“A moving account of how two lowly Breton ‘ploucs’ upheld French honour during an era of great champions, epic Alpine battles, and the hard realities of postwar Europe.” Luke Edwardes-Evans, cycling editor and journalist

“His story is of courage and disappointment, of highs and of lows and of two young Breton brothers who set out together on a road to cycling glory. It’s a wonderful read that’s just as inspiring as all those superb old Tour mags from years ago.” Roger St Pierre, cycling journalist