Gallery of Cycling Legends Autographs

Switzerland

Hugo Koblet (born Zürich, Switzerland, 21 March 1925, died Egg, Switzerland, 6 November 1964[1]) was a Swiss champion cyclist. He won the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia as well as competing in six-day and pursuit races on the track. He won 70 races as a professional.[2] He died in a car accident amid speculation that he had committed suicide.

Ferdinand "Ferdi" Kübler (born 24 July 1919) is a retired Swiss cyclist with over 400 professional victories, including the 1950 Tour de France and the 1951 World Road Race Championship.

Kubler's most successful years in international racing were 1950-1952, when the classics had resumed after the Second World War. He won the La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, both in 1951 and 1952. He was also World Road Race Champion in 1951, having placed second in 1949 and third in 1950.

Kubler was a high-spirited and impulsive rider sometimes given to strategically unwise attacks, out of exuberance and competitive drive. He was known as “the cowboy” because of his penchant for Stetson hats.

Italy

Alfredo Binda (11 August 1902 – 19 July 1986) was an Italian cyclist of the 1920s and 1930s, later trainer of Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali. 

Three road world championships, five Giro wins, two Milan – San Remo crowns and four Giro di Lombardia victories all indicate the immense capabilities Binda possessed.

Gino Bartali, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (born Ponte a Ema, Florence, Italy, 18 July 1914, died Florence, 5 May 2000 was a war hero and a champion road cyclist. He was the most renowned Italian cyclist before the Second World War, having won the Giro d'Italia twice (in 1936 and 1937) and the Tour de France in 1938. His second and last Tour de France victory in 1948 gave him the largest gap between victories in the race.

Angelo Fausto Coppi, (15 September 1919, Castellania, Province of Alessandria – 2 January 1960, Tortona, Province of Alessandria), was the dominant international cyclist of the years each side of the Second World War. His successes earned him the title Il Campionissimo, or champion of champions. He was an all-round racing cyclist.

He won the Giro d'Italia five times (1940, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953), the Tour de France twice (1949 and 1952), and the World Championship in 1953. Other notable results include winning the Giro di Lombardia five times, the Milan – San Remo three times, as well as wins at Paris–Roubaix and La Flèche Wallonne and setting the hour record (45.798 km) in 1942.

France

Antonin Magne (15 February 1904 in Ytrac, Cantal – 8 September 1983 in Arcachon) was a French cyclist who won the Tour de France in 1931 and 1934. He raced as a professional from 1927 to 1939 and then became a team manager.

In 1936 he came second in the Tour and then won the world championship on the road. He won the Grand Prix des Nations, the unofficial world championship of the individual time trial, in 1934, 1935 and 1936.

Louis 'Louison' Bobet (12 March 1925 - 13 March 1983 was a French professional road racing cyclist. He was the first great French rider of the post-war period and the first rider to win the Tour de France in three successive years, from 1953 to 1955.

His career included the national road championship (1950 and 1951), Milan – San Remo (1951), Giro di Lombardia (1951), Critérium International (1951 & 52), Paris–Nice (1952), Grand Prix des Nations (1952), world road championship (1954), Ronde van Vlaanderen (1955), Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré (1955), Tour de Luxembourg (1955), Paris–Roubaix (1956) and Bordeaux–Paris (1959).

Jacques Anquetil (8 January 1934 – 18 November 1987) was a French road racing cyclist and the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964. He stated before the 1961 Tour that he would gain the yellow jersey on day one and wear it all through the tour, a tall order with two previous winners in the field—Charly Gaul and Federico Bahamontes—but he did just that.

His victories in stage races such as the Tour were built on an exceptional ability to ride alone against the clock in individual time trial stages, which lent him the name "Monsieur Chrono".