Cavendish IQ Giveaway Competition

Mark Cavendish’s new book “At Speed” is out and the publishers asked if I was interested in giving away a copy in a competition.In fact the lucky winner will get the book and a signed team jersey and two other podium finishers will get a copy of the book each.

Now online competitions are too easy with Google so I like to pick a question that you can’t you the answer to… but you can guess.

Not having read “Boy Racer” I’m aiming to read this, my appetite whetted by Daniel Friebe’s plugging on the Humans Invent podcast. But here’s a way to get the book faster than me…

You’ll know Mark Cavendish as the best sprinter in recent years although I think it’ll be fascinating to see how he copes with rivalry from Marcel Kittel and others. “Cav” has never had the peloton’s biggest power output but has made up for this with high leg speed, an aero position and a sharp sense of positioning. He recently explained the art of sprinting to The Telegraph:

“For me, it’s like a calculation, a series of movements, a series of chess moves. Not thinking, not having to react. Just reacting. By the time we start the sprint, my heart rate is probably 20 or 30 beats slower than the other guys. So many cyclists train their bodies. They don’t train their mind. I constantly do puzzle books. Smash through them. My iPad’s full of them. Logic puzzles. Bridges. Slitherlink.”

He pulls an iPad out of his bag. A picture of his wife Peta adorns the background screen as he opens up his latest puzzle, a variation on Sudoku.

“Hanidoku. You’ve got this honeycomb. Every single line has to have a consecutive run of numbers. Could be one to five, could be two to six. So there’s got to be a five here, because there’s a four there, but it can’t go with another five. Do you see?”

Does he do puzzles to nurture his cycling brain, or are both symptoms of his basic inquisitive intelligence? “A bit of both. Like, I play Scrabble against random opponents, and if I lose that I’m as pissed off as if I lose a Tour de France stage.”

Is he a genius? “Last time I did an IQ test I was, yeah.”

I’ve picked a question only a few people know: What is Mark Cavendish’s IQ score?

The Rules

  • Please give your guess by comment only so I don’t have to collate emails and tweets
  • Post under any pseudonym you like, I will only need the name and address should you win
  • If there’s a tie then it’ll go to a random generator
  • All picks need to be in by Wednesday at midday, Euro time.
  • The goodies will be posted anywhere in the world

597 thoughts on “Cavendish IQ Giveaway Competition”

  500. This doesn’t make any sense if we don’t know what the standard deviation is! Is it 15, 16 or even 24 (yes some tests use that)?! (and why am I the first to point this out?)

    My guess (based on a SD of 15) is 142.

  560. Two tours back I think it was, I remember thinking cav must be smarter than at the very least most bike racers. His comments on a rider killed by a truck in the UK seemed so informed and thought out in comparison to those made by other UK riders. I guess he’s actually smarter than most and not just on the bike.

    do you know if cav commutes by bike or just rides for his job?

    And I’ll toss out 169

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