View source for Challenge Desgrange-Colombo

{{short description|Cycling competition}}
{{Infobox sports league
| title           = Challenge Desgrange-Colombo
| logo            = 
| pixels          = <!-- use a format of ##px, such as 120px -->
| caption         = 
| formerly        = 
| replaced        = [[Super Prestige Pernod]]
| sport           = [[Road bicycle racing]]
| inaugural       = [[1948 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|{{start date|1948}}]]
| countries       = International
| champion        = {{flagathlete|[[Fred De Bruyne]]|BEL}}
| most_champs     = {{Unbulleted list|{{flagathlete|[[Ferdinand Kübler]]|SUI}}|{{flagathlete|[[Fred De Bruyne]]|BEL}}}}
:3 wins each
| folded          = [[1958 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1958]]
| related_comps   = 
}}
The '''Challenge Desgrange-Colombo''' was a season-long [[road bicycle racing]] competition between 1948 and 1958. There were two classifications, one for individual cyclists and another for nations.

==History==
The Challenge Desgrange-Colombo competition was created in 1948 to get the cyclists from two of the most dominant countries of the sport, France and Italy, to participate in each other's races.{{sfn|MacGregor|2016|p=184}} Named after long-time [[Tour de France]] director [[Henri Desgrange]] and [[Giro d'Italia]] director {{ill|Emilio Colombo (journalist)|lt=Emilio Colombo|it|Emilio Colombo (giornalista)}}, the competition was organised by the [[newspaper]]s ''[[L'Équipe]]'', ''[[La Gazzetta dello Sport]]'', ''[[Het Nieuwsblad-Sportwereld]]'' and ''[[Les Sports]]''.{{sfn|Heijmans|Mallon|2011|p=47}} 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]], [[Tour of Flanders (men's race)|Tour of Flanders]], [[La Flèche Wallonne]], [[Paris–Brussels]], [[Paris–Tours]] and the [[Giro di Lombardia]] counted towards the competition. The [[Tour de Suisse]] was added in [[1949 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1949]], [[Liège–Bastogne–Liège]] in [[1951 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1951]], the [[Vuelta a España]] in 1958.{{sfn|Heijmans|Mallon|2011|p=48}}<ref name="mdc">{{cite web|title=Challenge "Desgrange-Colombo"|url=http://www.memoire-du-cyclisme.eu/dossiers/dos_desgrange-colombo.php|access-date=26 March 2020|work=Mémoire du cyclisme|language=French}}</ref>

The first winner was Belgian [[Briek Schotte]], who won the [[1948 Tour of Flanders|Tour of Flanders]] and also [[1948 UCI Road World Championships|world road race championship]] of the [[1948 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1948 season]]. The 1949 edition was won by the Italian [[Fausto Coppi]] while [[1950 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1950]] went to the Swiss [[Ferdi Kubler]] and 1951 to Frenchman [[Louison Bobet]]. Kubler also won in [[1952 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1952]] and [[1954 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1954]] to equal the record of Belgian [[Fred De Bruyne]], who won from [[1956 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1956]] to [[1958 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1958]].<ref name="mdc" />

The competition was effectively superseded by the [[Super Prestige Pernod]], first awarded in [[1959 Super Prestige Pernod|1959]].{{sfn|Heijmans|Mallon|2011|p=47}}

==Winners==
{| class="wikitable"
! Year!! Individual rider!! Nation
|-
| [[1948 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1948]] || {{flagathlete|[[Briek Schotte]]|BEL}} || {{ITA}}
|-
| [[1949 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1949]] || {{flagathlete|[[Fausto Coppi]]|ITA}}  ||  {{ITA}}
|-
| [[1950 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1950]] || {{flagathlete|[[Ferdinand Kübler]]|SUI}} ||  {{ITA}}
|-
| [[1951 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1951]] || {{flagathlete|[[Louison Bobet]]|FRA}} || {{FRA}}
|-
| [[1952 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1952]] || {{flagathlete|[[Ferdinand Kübler]]|SUI}} || {{ITA}}
|-
| [[1953 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1953]] || {{flagathlete|[[Loretto Petrucci]]|ITA}} ||  {{ITA}}
|-
| [[1954 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1954]] || {{flagathlete|[[Ferdinand Kübler]]|SUI}} || {{BEL}}
|-
| [[1955 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1955]] || {{flagathlete|[[Stan Ockers]]|BEL}} || {{BEL}}
|-
| [[1956 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1956]] || {{flagathlete|[[Fred De Bruyne]]|BEL}} ||  {{BEL}}
|-
| [[1957 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1957]] || {{flagathlete|[[Fred De Bruyne]]|BEL}} ||  {{BEL}}
|-
| [[1958 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo|1958]] || {{flagathlete|[[Fred De Bruyne]]|BEL}} || {{BEL}}
|}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book | last1=Heijmans | last2=Mallon | first1=Jeroen | first2=Bill | authorlink2=Bill Mallon | title=Historical Dictionary of Cycling | series=Historical Dictionaries of Sports | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZdXCmwpk-SAC | year=2011 | publisher=Scarecrow Press | location=Lanham, MD | isbn=978-0-8108-7175-5 }}
* {{cite book | last=MacGregor | first=Iain | title=To Hell on a Bike: Riding Paris–Roubaix: the Toughest Race in Cycling | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3n_PCwAAQBAJ | year=2016 | publisher=[[Transworld Publishers]] | location=London | isbn=978-0-552-17131-1 }}

==External links==
*{{Cycling Archives race|12419}}

{{Challenge Desgrange-Colombo}}
{{Cycling season competitions}}

[[Category:Challenge Desgrange-Colombo| ]]
[[Category:Cycle racing series]]
[[Category:Recurring sporting events established in 1948]]
[[Category:Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1958]]
[[Category:Defunct cycle racing series]]