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. Named after long-time
Tour de France director
Henri Desgrange and
Giro d'Italia director , 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,
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,
Liège–Bastogne–Liège in
1951, the
Vuelta a España in 1958. The first winner was Belgian
Briek Schotte, who won the
Tour of Flanders and also
world road race championship of the
1948 season. The 1949 edition was won by the Italian
Fausto Coppi while
1950 went to the Swiss
Ferdi Kubler and 1951 to Frenchman
Louison Bobet. Kubler also won in
1952 and
1954 to equal the record of Belgian
Fred De Bruyne, who won from
1956 to
1958. The competition was effectively superseded by the
Super Prestige Pernod, first awarded in
1959. ==Winners==