Dear Hugo

Hugo Koblet was the Pédaleur de Charme, a Tour de France winner arguably more gifted even than Fausto Coppi. During cycling’s “golden age” he was sporting deity; rich, charismatic and achingly beautiful. In winning the 1951 Tour he enraptured not only European sports fans but also, uniquely, European womanhood. And yet… When, in 1964, Koblet took his own life, he was penniless, homeless and utterly broken. In “Dear Hugo”, award-winning author Herbie Sykes evokes the wreckage of that life through the testimony of a fan, and through the contents of a mysterious cardboard box discovered in a Zurich apartment…