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