Some are obvious, some odd, most can’t be Googled and a few are fiendish. By all means have a go and there’s a Tour de France polka-dot t-shirt prize for the winner… but most will probably find fun in the answers that will appear here next week.
Christmas theme
1. Dressed in red and white, he makes his way in the wintery wonderland. Who is it in the picture above?
2. Who won the last Tour of Turkey?
3. Who was gifted with a race win this year?
That Was The Year That Was
4. Which of the three grand tours had the narrowest winning margin?
5. Which rider raced the greatest number of kilometres?
6. Away from worlds, national and continental championships, what was the longest time trial on the 2020 pro calendar?
7. Who is the third highest-rated Slovenian rider on the UCI rankings?
Viral content
8. Which race did Romain Bardet drop out from at the last minute and had to be replaced by Ag2r teammate Mathias Frank?
9. How high is Mount Everest?
10. Which rider posted a video clip of them taking an axe to their home trainer?
Geography class
11. What was the highest altitude summit finish in pro racing this year?
12. Name three current professional cyclists born on small islands in the Pacific Ocean?
13. Name a race that was held across international borders this year.
History Round
14. Five Four riders have each won the Tour de France five times. Name another race won by all four of these riders.
15. Name another season when many races were cancelled outright for months but not because of war. Hint: it was in one country.
16. What was the only major race that Eddy Merckx didn’t win?
Financial times
17. Which World Tour teams publish their accounts making their budgets a matter of public record?
18. Which company has the higher stockmarket valuation, Shimano or Nissan?
19. Does Velon make money for its member teams?
Chief Commissaire
20. You’re riding a 200km grand tour stage, when can you get food from the team car or roadside during a race?
21. Outside of the three grand tours, what was the longest stage race when measured by race days this year?
22. How many sponsors can a team cite in their official name?
Language lessons
23. Many bike races have French names like the Tour de Pologne or the Tour de Yorkshire. In English technical terms like rouleur, soigneur, commissaire, echelon and bidon are imported from French too but which one of these five isn’t actually used by French cyclists?
24. Campagnolo, SRAM and Shimano all make bike components. What do their names mean?
25. What do Marianne Vos, Guillaume Martin and Pascal Eenkhoorn have in common?
Pet habits
26. Which grand tour winner issued a public appeal to help in the search for his missing dog this year?
27. Name a pro with a pet rabbit.
28. Which pro has a pet with its own Instagram account and thousands of followers?
Nicknames
29. Name the riders nicknamed the Emperor of Herentals, the Eagle of Toledo and the The Trumpeter of Cittiglio.
30. Who is Wawa, Top Gun and The Coathanger?
31. Which active professional rider changed their surname as an adult in order to avoid mockery before becoming famous?
32. Who are Brigitte and Bernadette?
When They Were Young
33. Who is this person seemingly at ease in the saddle from a young age?
34. Which future Tour de France stage winner is among these club mates?
35. Which future pro is among these club mates?
36. Who in this photo is going to give up sea swimming and start racing bikes?
Picture round
37, 38, 39, 40. Name the four pro cyclists from each set of images.
The Prize
This is a genuine quiz rather a phoney “name who won the Tour de France so we can harvest your email address” exercise. If you want to have a go or maybe readers collectively crowdsource their way together, feel free to leave your answers in the comments below and the deadline is midday Euro Time on Wednesday 30 December. As an incentive the winner gets a Tour de France polka-dot t-shirt to help achieve that French roadside look. The most correct answers wins and if there’s a tie then a name gets picked at random. Obviously people can copy off each other which spoils the point of it all but if you want to wheelsuck your way to victory by copying someone else’s answers and then sprinting past them with a final correct answer… …well that’s cycling.
As loyal readers will know the quiz has some hard questions which can’t be googled in one go, half the point of the quiz is to take a sideways look at things in the answers which will appear here later this week. Happy holidays…
Jeez, this is brutal! Glad you’re not a teacher. Your tests would give me nightmares.
I don’t know where you get the time, energy or intelligence to do these quizzes and posts, but whoever you are, you’re quite amazing, and thank you.
Q14. Surely only 4 riders have won the Tour de France 5 times?
yes. that’s what the statistics tell. this certain us-american rider is not in the winner lists anymore.
OK, let’s go with four then. For the answer you can have a fifth rider who has won the Tour four times too.
Giro still works then (about the only answer I can get, this is fiendishly difficult!)
(and they all won the Giro)
All five won the Criterium du Dauphine
I’m a sucker for the high mountains so maybe 11 was Alto el Verjon (Bogota, Tour de Colombia) with 3347m ? I did it two years ago and loved it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2cQJexGDuw
15. Germany, after various German stars were found to have doped, so all state broadcaster support was pulled..?
23. Bordures
Fiendishly hard for me.
Thanks, as ever for putting the hard miles in.
Off top of my head – with lots of question marks when unsure and pls excuse poor spelling.
1) Wilco Kelderman being dropped on Stelvio
2) Groshartner
3) Max Schalermann
4) Vuelta
5) Pello Bilboa ?
6) Vuelta ?
7) Luca Megzec?
8) Giro
9) 8,500m (approx
)10) Landa
11) ?
12)
13) e-racing
14) Giro
15)
16) Paris Tours
?17) Most
18) Nissan?
19) No
20) Before the last 20km unless a mountain stage
21) Paris Nice?
22) 2?
23) Echelon?
24) ?
25) ?
26-28
29) Van Looy, Bahamontes, ?
30) Barguil, ? Krysweick
31-40)
1. Kelderman
2. Muhlberger
3. Kristoff
4. And 8. Vuelta
9. 8000+
14. Giro
20. 1st 180 km
22. 2
23. Echelons
25. Birthday
29. Rik v Looy, Bahamontes
30. Kruijswijk
35. G
36. Powless
Some are right, some I have fact-checked and found to be wrong, but I will leave the wrong answer for honesty’s sake. Some are pure guesses.
1. Wilco Kelderman
2. Eduard Prades
3. Fabio Jakobsen
4. Vuelta
5. Pello Bilbao (was mentioned in The Cycling Podcast quiz)
6. The middle time trial in the Giro
7. Matej Mohoric
8. Ronde Van Vlaanderen
9. 8,848 metres
10. Peter Sagan
11. Col de la Loze
12. ?
13. Giro stage through San Marino
14. Giro
15. Germany in 2008
16. Paris Tours
17. AG2R & Sky/Ineos
18. Shimano
19. Yes
20. Up until 20km before the end of the stage (Monsieur Alaphillipe needs a reminder)
21. Paris-Nice (7 days)
22. 3
23. Echelon (French word is bordures)
24. ?
25. They all won overall King (Queen) of the Mountains
26. Geraint Thomas
27. Julian Alaphillipe
28. Luke Rowe
29. WVA, Federico Bahamontes, Filippo Ganna
30. Warren Barguil, Fernando Gaviria, Steven Kruiswijk
31. Remco Evenepoel
32. Patrick Lefevre & Marc Sargeant
33. Egan Bernal
34. Thibaut Pinot
35. Nans Peters
36. Tao Geoghegan Hart
37. Nelson Powless
38. Franco Pelizzotti
39. Kevin Ledanois
40. Doug Ryder
No ambitions of winning (which, like a GC rider saying he’s “stage hunting”, means I don’t have the ability), so here’s the answers off the top of my head, no googling.
1. Kelderman
2. Max Schachmann?
3. Poetically, Primoz Roglic, at LBL. I think Ackermann at a Vuelta stage was as well.
4. Vuelta
5. Remi Cavagna?
6. Giro? Feel like there’s a trick here
7. Tratnik
8.
9. “about 29,000 feet”
10.
11. (actually looked this up, I think) El Once, at the Tour Columbia 2.1
12. Beppu, Nakane, and Dion Smith (is this cheating?)
13. I have a suspicion it didn’t this year, but doesn’t Gent-Wevelgem usually go into France briefly?
14. The Dauphine
15. 2001, the Foot and Mouth outbreak in the UK?
16. Paris-Tours
17. FDJ, and Lotto Soudal, I believe.
18. Nissan
19. No
20. Entirely up to the road book, IIRC. Not uncommon for the last feed to be moved due to a descent, or at an appropriate point in the road.
21. Dauphine?
22. Three
23. Echelon
24. Campagnolo – no idea, SRAM – Derived from the names of the founders of the company, Shimano – Written in katakana, so I’m assuming it doesn’t mean anything (other than the company founder’s namesake)
25. College education?
26. ?
27. Alaphillipe, I think.
28. ?
29: Bahamontes is the only one I know of.
30. Wawa is Barguil, I have no idea about Top Gun but I’ll guess Adam Hansen because of a certain HTRWW video.
31. Zero clue on this one.
32. ?
33-36. ?
37. Nielsen Powless
38-40. No clue
33. I wanna say that’s Eddy, as in Merckx. Just a hunch.
36. Yeah, Tao Hart – that photo might be of the group of teenagers who relay-swam across the Channel, which he was a part of.
1 Kelderman
2 Grosschartner
3 Froome / Ackermann
4 La Vuelta
5 Bilbao
6 Giro stage 14
7 Matej Mohoric
8 The Digital Swiss 5 – stage 3
9 8848 m
10 Mikel Landa
11 Tour Colombia – stage 6
12 Bennett – Smith – Archebold
13 WC Zwift
14 Giro
15 Germany 2009
16 Dwars door Vlaanderen
17 FDJ
18 Shimano
19 no
20 until 20km from the finish
21 Paris Nice
22 3
23 echelon
25
9. 8848 m
16. Paris-Tours
17. Ag2r, Sky/Ineos
22. 2
23. Echelon – Bordure
29. … Federico Bahamontes …
30. …, …, Steven Kruijswijk
34. Julian Alaphilippe
38. Dylan van Baarle
21=Vuelta San Juan
40 is presumably Phil Bauhaus, though really it should be Tipper De Stijl
20: after 50 and before 20km to go.
32. Are Brigitte and Bernadette the two who say ‘We ❤ Madeleines’ in the caravane publicitaire of the Tour?
40. Is there a rider called Tipper Mondrian?
Well, the artist was Pi[e]t Mondrian. Not a rider, though.
Pedant commissaire alert!
Number 20 – You may feed between kilometres 30 and 180 of the stage, but not in the last 500 metres before or 50 metres after any sprint or mountain prime point. You also cannot feed in the 500 metres before the feed zone.
Feeding on any descent after a mountain prime is also prohibited (although in practice this is rarely enforced and hard to police anyway).
Of course all of the above can be overridden by the Commissaire President at any time following an announcement on Radio Tour (or just a nod out through the window of the car…)
29. Van Looy, Bahamontès and maybe Binda (?).
30. Barguil, maybe Géminiani (le Grand Fusil ?) and Kruisjwick.
32. Pierre Latour’s legs
33. Bernal
34. Alaphilippe
35. Réza
39. Casper Pedersen ? Anyway the cyclist is Jimmy Casper, but no idea about the green donkey.
1: Wilco Kelderman
2: Felix Grossschartner
3: Fabio Jakobsen (Pologne), Pascal Ackermann (Vuelta), Roglic (LBL)
4: Vuelta a Espana
5: Sam Bennett
6: Vuelta a Guatemala
7: Luka Mezgec
8: Digital Swiss 5 – Stage 3
9: 8,848.86m
10: Mikel Landa
11: El Once – Alto Verjon (Tour Colombia 2.1 – Stage 6)
12: Dion Smith, Shane Archbold, George Bennett
13: UCI CYCLING ESPORTS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
13: UCI Cycling Esports World Championship
14: Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
15: 1919
16: Paris – Tours
17: Team Ineos, Ag2r La Mondiale, Groupama-FDJ, Cofidis
18: Shimano
19: No.
20: Between kilometres 30 and 180, unless it’s on a descent or right before a sprint/mountain point/the feed zone.
21: Vuelta a Guatemala
22: 3
23: Echelon
24: Shimano and Campagnolo – last name of founder, SRAM – accronym from the founders names
25: Their surnames are animal-related.
26: Nairo Quintana
27: Romain Sicard
28: Thibaut Pinot (@kim.goat)
29: Rik Van Looy, Federico Bahamontes, Alfredo Binda
30: Warren Barguil, Raphaël Géminiani, Steven Kruijswijk
31: Rigoberto Uran
32: Pierre Latour’s legs
33: Egan Bernal
34: Julian Alaphilippe
35: Nans Peters
36: Tao Geoghan Hart
37: Neilson Powless
38: Dylan van Baarle
39: Jimmy Casper
40: Phil Bauhaus
you could add Kwiatkowski’s Tour stage win to the list of possible answers for question number 3. Depends how you define “gifted” I guess.
1. Wilco Kwelderman. Giro d’Italia (2020) Stage 18
2. Felix Großschartner in 2019
3. In the Tour de France, Michał Kwiatkowski received the 18th stage victory as a gift from Carapaz
4. Vuelta a España: 24 seconds
5. Sam Bennett: 11.432,80 km (Only races of category .1 or above and finished races are counted)
6. Vuelta a Guatemala (2.2) Stage 4: 43 km
7. Luka Nezgec in the 73rd position with 32 545 points
8. eRace – Digital Swiss 5 – Race 3
9. 8,848.86m
10. Mikel Landa
11. Vuelta al Ecuador (2.2) Stage 4, finish at La Estrellita: 3328 masl
12. Dan Aponik, Derek Horton, Peter Lombard II, and Jonathan Martin, from Guam, ride with the EuroCyclingTrips – CMI Pro Cycling, a UCI Continental cycling team
13. Antwerp Port Epic / Sels Trophy
14. Giro d’Italia or Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
15.
16. Itzulia Basque Country
17. INEOS , AG2R La Mondiale, Groupama-FDJ and Cofidis
18. Shimano
19. Yes
20. In any part, except: – during the 30 first and last 20 kilometers; – in the last 500 meters before and in the first 50 meters after a sprint counting for a secondary classification, bonus sprint, feeding zone; – on descents of mountains listed on the mountain classification; – in any other area specified by the organiser or the commissaires panel.
21. Vuelta a Guatemala (2.2) 10 days
22. There is no limit to the number of sponsors; the team name is limited by the number of characters available in the register of the UCI database.
23. Echelon isn’t the term used in French, that’s a bordure.
24 The founders’ names: SRAM is an acronym comprising the names of its founders, Scott Ray King, Stanley R, Day, and Sam Patterson. Gentullio Campagnolo was the founder of the company Campagnolo. Shozaburo Shimano founded the company Shimano.
25. Their given names are French.
26. Nairo Quintana.
27. Romain Sicard
28. Thibaut Pinot’s pet is a goat with your Instagram account: http://www.instagram.com/kim.goat/
29. Henri “Rik” Van Looy, Federico Bahamontes and Alfredo Binda”
30. Wawa: Waren Barguil, Top Gun: Filippo Ganna and The coathanger: Steven Kruijswijk
31.
32. Pierre Latour calls his left leg Brigitte and his right leg Bernadette.
33. Egan Arley Bernal Gómez
34. Julian Alaphillipe
35. Kevin Reza
36. Tao Geoghegan Hart
37. Neilson Powless
38. Dylan Van Baarle
39. Kasper Asgreen
40. Phil Bauhaus
great fun!
1. Wilco Kelderman
2. Felix Grosschartner
3. Michal Kwiatowski – stage 18 TdF
4. La Vuelta
5. Michael Valgren . (Pello Bilbao raced most days)
6. Tour of Guatemala 43K
7. Luka Mezgac
8. ?
9. 8848.86m
10,Mikel Landa
11. La Estrellita 3342m Vuelta Ecuador
12. ?
13. Baltic Chain Tour
14.Giro d’Italia and the Dauphine
15. ?
16. Paris – Tours
17. Ineos, AG2R la Mondiale, Groupama-FDJ, Cofidis
18. Shimano
19. No
20. After the first 30K and up to 180K. No feed in last 20k,
21.Tour of Guatemala (10)
22. Three
23.Echelon
24. All named after their founders , SRAM being an acronym derived from the founders names. However, Campagnolo means farmer, Shimano translates aas island field or island plain, and SRAM is the common abreviation for Static Random Access Memory.
25. Their surnames are all mammals: Fox, Martin and Squirrel
26. ?
27 ?
28. Thibaut Pinot
29. Rik van Looy; Federico Bahamontes: Alfredo Binda
30.Warren Barguil: Raphael Geminiani (le grand fusil): Steven Kruiswijk
31. ?
32. ?
33. Egan Bernal
34. ?
35. Kevin Reza
36. Tao Geoghan Hart
37. Neilson Powless
38. Boy van Poppel
39:?
40. Phil Bauhaus
1: Wilco Kelderman
2: Felix Großschartner
3: Michal Kwiatkowski – Tour de France Stage 18
4: Vuelta a Espana
5: Sam Bennett
6: Vuelta a Guatemala – Stage 4 (43km)
7: Luka Mezgec
8: Digital Swiss 5 – Stage 3
9: 8,848.86m
10: Mikel Landa
11: Vuelta al Ecuador Stage 4, La Estrellita (3328m)
12: Dan Aponik, Derek Horton, Peter Lombard and Jonathan Martin from Guam are riding for EuroCyclingTrips a Conti team from Guam.
13: Antwerp Port Epic / Sels Trophy, UCI Cycling Esports World Championship
14: Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
15: 2009 (Germany)
16: Paris-Tours
17: Team Ineos, Cofidis, Ag2r La Mondiale, Groupama-FDJ
18: Shimano
19: That is their goal but they had a big legal battle with the UCI and some teams are leaving so I’m going with no.
20: between km 30 and 180, not in the last 500m before a sprint for a secondary classification or on a descent. Can be changed by the organiser/commissaires. 21: Vuelta a Guatemala (10 stages)
22: Three
23: Echelon
24: last name of the founders (Shimano/Campa), acronym of the founders names (SRAM) 25: Their lastnames are also animals
26: Nairo Quintana
27: Romain Sicard
28: Thibaut Pinot
29: Rik Van Looy, Federico Bahamontes, Alfredo Binda
30: Warren Barguil, Raphaël Géminiani, Steven Kruijswijk
31: Remco Evenepoel
32: Pierre Latour’s legs
33: Egan Bernal
34: Julian Alaphilippe
35: Nans Peters
36: Tao Geoghan Hart
37: Neilson Powless
38: Dylan van Baarle
39: Kasper Asgreen
40: Phil Bauhaus
40 (pedants corner supplementary) The Red Blue Chair by Gerrit Rietveld https://www.moma.org/collection/works/4044 and works by Piet Mondrian are examples of De Stijl movement in design.
And
20. If you’re the commissaire, you should have thought to bring your own supplies!
Two mins to go!!
1. Wilco Kelderman
2: Felix Grossschartner
3: Michal Kwiatkowski
4: Vuelta a Espana
5: Sam Bennett
6: Vuelta a Guatemala – Stage 4 (43km)
7: Luka Mezgec
8: Digital Swiss 5 – Stage 3
9: 8,848.86m say the diplomats
10: Mikel Landa
11: Vuelta al Ecuador Stage 4, La Estrellita
12: Dan Aponik, Derek Horton, Peter Lombard and Jonathan Martin from Guam are riding for EuroCyclingTrips a Conti team from Guam.
13: Antwerp Port Epic / Sels Trophy, UCI Cycling Esports World Championship
14: Critérium du Dauphiné
15: 2009 in Germany
16: Paris-Tours
17: Team Ineos, & Ag2r la Mondiale
18: Nissan
19: Yes; not sure how much though!
20: Until 20km to go
21: With no Tour de Suisse… Vuelta a Guatemala (10 stages)
22: Three
23: Echelon (Bordures, en français)
24: Campagnolo is from Tullio Campagnolo, founder. Roughly it means country boy. Shimano is from Shozaburo Shimano, founder; not sure what it means in Japanese. SRAM is from Scott, Ray, sAM, two first names and a middle name of the founders.
acronym of the founders names (SRAM)
25: Fox, Starling, Squirrel; they are animals
26: Nairo Quintana
27: Romain Sicard
28: Thibaut Pinot
29: Rik Van Looy, Federico Bahamontes, Alfredo Binda
30: Warren Barguil, Raphaël Géminiani, Steven Kruijswijk
31: Domenico Pozzovivo (was Puzzovivo, dialect Italian that’s not sexy in standard Italian)
32: Pierre Latour’s legs
33: Egan Bernal
34: Julian Alaphilippe
35: Nans Peters
36: Tao Geoghegan Hart
37: Neilson Powless
38: Dylan van Baarle
39: Kasper Asgreen
40: Phil Bauhaus
1. Wilco Keldermann
2. Felix Grossschartner
3. Michal Kwiatkowski
4. Vuelta – 24s
5. Michael Valgren – 11,418km
6. TdF – Stage 20 (36.2)
7. Luka Mezgec
8. Digital Swiss 5 – Stage 3
9. 8,848.86m
10. Mikel Landa
11. El Once – 3,290m (Tour Colombia 2.1, Stage 6)
12. Yukiya Arashiro, Fumiyuki Beppu, Hideto Nakane (Japan)
13. BinckBank Tour
14. Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
15. 2009, Germany
16. Paris-Tours
17. French teams (AG2R, Cofidis, Groupama-FDJ)
18. Shimano (21.71B according to Yahoo Finance vs 21.309B for Nissan)
19. No
20. You can only get a musette handed from the roadside in the (mandatory) feed zone or on a categorised climb. Bidons can be provided from a car or roadside after the first 30km and before the final 20km, and not on descents, or approaching (500m) or immediately after (50m) a secondary classification line.
21. Paris – Nice and Tour of Rwanda both had 8 stages
22. Up to three.
23. Echelon – French call it a bordure
24. Campagnolo – name of the founder Tullio, someone from the country/a yokel. SRAM – acronym of the founders Scott, Ray and Sam. Shimano – name of the founder Shozaburo Shimano, meaning “island of…”
25. Last names are all animals
26. Nairo Quintana
27. Romain Sicard
28. Thibaut Pinot (@kim.goat)
29. Rik van Looy, Frederico Bahamontes, Alfredo Binda
30. Julian Alaphilippe, Filippo Gannna, Stephen Kruijswijk
31. Domenico Pozzovivo (formerly Puzzovivo)
32. Pierre Latour’s left and right legs.
33. Egan Bernal
34. Julian Alaphilippe
35. Kevin Reza
36. Tao Geoghan Hart
37. Nielson Powless
38. Dylan van Baarle
39. Kasper Asgreen
40. Phil Bauhaus
30: Barguil and Filippo Ganna (as anyone unfortunate enough to have watched Eurosport should be able to tell you).
Happy new year INRNG and thank you for so many happy hours…