Originally Posted by
sd5782
I looked on Classic Rendezvous, and they point to it maybe being a Stella with this famous racers name on it.
I of course know nothing of it but posted for the French fans.
From Wikipedia:Louison Bobet (company), a line of bicycles produced by french bicycle manufacturer
Mercier for French cyclist Louison Bobet following his cycling career.
Mercier (cycling team) history:
Cycles Mercier was the main sponsor of the team from at least 1935
[1] on until 1969. From 1946 on, the team wore a purple jersey which in 1950 became the characteristic purple jersey with yellow neck and cuff lining which was to stay with the team until Mercier was no longer the main sponsor of the team in 1969. From 1935
[1] to 1955
[2] the team had as second sponsor Hutchinson and was the Mercier-Hutchinson team. From 1956
[3] the team was known as Mercier-BP-Hutchinson which it would continue as until 1969
[4] after which the sponsor Mercier became the second sponsor of the team. Two time
Tour de France champion and 1936 World Champion
Antonin Magne finished his career with the Mercier-Hutchinson team in 1941. Around ten years later in 1953, Magne was the main
directeur sportif of the team and he would guide the team up until 1970 when the name of the team changed to ***or-Mercier. Magne guided the team during many successful years.
Frenchman Louison Bobet was part of the team in 1955 when he won
Tour of Flanders but at this time the
Tour de France was disputed by national teams so Mercier did not have the opportunity to ride the Tour as a team. Nevertheless, riders of the team won the Tour in 1937 and 1955.
Despite being on the team, it appears that Louison Bobet did not wear the Mercier-BP-Hutchinson jersey but a Bobet-BP-Hutchinson jersey. This happened during several races and was common practice at the time as can be seen with other sponsors names that took the place of Mercier for example- A. Leducq, A,Magne, F.Pelissier, Le Greves and M.Archambaud. Examples of the different jerseys can be found on the French website
memoire du cyclisme. In this way Bobet was part of the Magne directed Mercier team but he rode his own mark of racing bicycles –
Louison Bobet bicycles and his teams are listed as from 1955 to 1960 as Bobet-BP-Hutchinson.[5]