Headache? Could be too much to drink, could be the virus, or it could be this quiz. As ever there’s a mix of fun and fiendish questions, and if you’re left scratching your head, don’t worry. Nobody can know all the answers and some questions should make Google DNF… so wait for the answers next week which might be more interesting that the questions.
1. Dressed in red he makes his way through the snow. It’s not Santa in the picture above, which World Tour pro is it?
That Was The Year That Was
2. Who had the most pro wins this year in the men’s and women’s peloton?
3. What was the narrowest winning margin of the three grand tours?
4. What was the highest altitude summit finish in the World Tour this year?
5. This photo is from the roadside of a race held earlier this year. It looks like an ideal coffee tea stop. Can you name the race?
6. Thanks to an attack on the last lap, this Tour de France stage winner had time to sit up and freewheel as he (and his horse) crossed the line. Who is it?
7. How many times did Romain Bardet race in France this year?
History Round
8. Stuart O’Grady and Robbie McEwen share a drink and strike a pose. What’s going on?
9. This racer is now in charge of a team, who is it?
10. Colnago frames have an ace of clubs logo. Why?
11. Primož Roglič used to be a ski jumper. But what other winter sport did he compete in before as well?
Chief Commissaire
12. What’s the UCI minimum wage for the men’s and women’s World Tour in 2022?
13. What’s the UCI penalty for dropping litter in a World Tour race?
14. Name a country with more pro teams than pro races?
15. This chart shows the annual budget of a World Tour squad over the years. Which team?
16. When was the last doping case in a pro team?
Random round
17. Who’s the middle man in the photo above?
18. What does DSM in Team DSM mean?
19. Name a current pro who is also a wine-maker? If you struggle, name a retired pro who is at it.
20. That’s the mascot, now name the race.
21. After crashing out of the Olympic Mountain Bike race, what food did Mathieu van der Poel console himself with, a large tub of yoghurt or a large sushi meal?
22. How many paved mountain passes are there in France and Italy? Give it a good guess.
Picture round
23. Get the rider’s name from the pictures above
24. Get the rider’s name from the pictures above.
25. Get the rider’s name from the pictures above.
The Prize
If you want to have a go, post your answers in the comments below. Readers can collectively crowdsource their way together. The most correct answers get wins a prize: curated gifts from the Tour de France caravan (aka trinkets pulled out of a ditch that’d I’d forgotten about)
Small print: the deadline is midday Euro Time on Wednesday 29 December. 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 deploy an eleventh hour copy-paste job… well that’s cycling where you can toil into the wind only for someone wheelsucker to sprint past in the finishing straight.
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 next week. Happy holidays…
Four (1, 7, 11 and 18) out of twentyfive. About what I expected. I hope to make it into two digits by racking my brain and using a search engine.
Q8 is re-enacting the headbutt incident from the 2005 TdF where Robbie McEwen was disqualified after finishing 2nd on the stage
The annual impossibility.
14. Israel.
That’s my contribution in its entirety.
When you can give a correct answer to a question that leaves 80% of readers with a headache and when reading that answer makes 80% of them hit their forehead with the back of their hands and ask themselves what made them so slow-witted, you don’t need to know more! You are the boss! You are the king of the mountain, if you like!
“…well that’s cycling where you can toil into the wind only for someone wheelsucker to sprint past in the finishing straight.” Ahh, always the lament of the racer without a sprint as they say!
Good luck to all with the quiz and best wishes for a great 2022 of cycling, whether you’re just watching on TV or out there sweating yourself and thanks to Mr. Inrng for another great year of interesting posts and to those who liven them up with spirited but intelligent and civil comments/discussions/arguments! BRAVI 🙂
For those asking I did use some google so don’t get all down that you know so little.
Spoiler Alert!
1 Anton Palzer
2 Lorena Wiebes (but it depends how you count stages, GC’s etc)
3 Giro (1’29)
4 Col du Portet (2209m)
5 Olympic Road Race
6 ???
7 He didn’t race in France this year
8 Jokes on the headbutt incedent of the TDF 2005 (thx to my namesake above)
9 Vincent Lavenu of AG2R
10 There are many stories on why that is but most likely it was that When Michele Dancelli won MSR on a bike build by Mr. Colnago in 1970 after year of non Italians winning the race. They decided to use the clover image on the Dancelli family crest.
11 Cross country skiing
12 €27,500 (F) & €32,100 (M)
13 Depends if it’s a stage race or one day race and if it’s the first, second or third offense. But first offense is 250 Swiss Frank fine and 25 UCI points reduction
14 Germany
15 Based on the year the chart starts I would say Team BikeExchange
16 Avila of Burgos (although still provisional)
17 Javier Gullien (Vuelta Race Director)
18 Dutch State Mines
19 Sean de Bie and Francesco Moser
20 Tro-Bro Léon? Only that mascot is actually alive.
21 Sushi
22 1500?
23 Kobe Goossens (Kobe Bryant – Goose – ???)
24 Olav Kooij (Olaf of Disney’s Frozen – Koi)
25 Finn Fisher Black (A Fin, A Fisher, Chantal Blaak)
20 is a pig in a blanket 🎄
And that’s about the only question I could answer too.
Merry Christmas one and all.
Small correction on 14, since Conti teams are not pro teams. I will change the answer to USA.
Or Qhubeka Nexthash / South Africa? Not sure which country they are registrered in.
Also, DSM is not a mining company anymore, it’s mostly active in the (bio-)chemical industry.
23 Suns (as in Phoenix Suns)
I really had to search and had a little bit of luck, but I finally understood where you were going with question 6, Inrng… Kinky one… The answer is Guillaume Martin, as surprising as it may seem…
As for the 22, if we trust the Club des cent cols that you made me discover, it should be 1531 for France + 1060 for Italy = 2591.
After a few years reading your blog, we start to understand how your brain is working, Inrng…
6. Jimmy Casper
No, it’s not Jimmy Casper. He did win Stage 1 (which was a sprint stage) in 2006 riding for Cofidis (but didn’t get to wear the yellow jersey because there was a prologue), but he didn’t drive a horse on a harness racing track, he rode his bike and raced against a horse!
Cyclist vs. trotter races were not too unusual, such PR events used to take place every year – and not only in France. The distance was either one lap (1 km) or the length of the finishing straight. The cyclist obviously didn’t race on the dirt track.
PS I believe Cascarinho is on the right track! It could be a trick question. Quite an amusing one, but still a trick question 🙂
thanks for the clarification. I wrote that before I read the whole thread and started having doubts myself, but couldn’t erase the reply on my phone.
The cyclist vs horse races have been a fixture because the French Cup series of races was sponsored by state betting company PMU and the winner of the cycling cup would race against a horse at one of PMU’s events.
Same story in Sweden where the horse betting company used to sponsor the national team, especially during Olympic years.
1. Anton “Toni” Palzer
2. Tadej Pogačar: 13; Lorena Wiebes: 12
3. Giro d’Italia. Egan Bernal beat Damiano Caruso by 1:29
4. The finish line of the 17th stage of the Tour was located in Col du Portet (Saint-Lary-Soulan) at 1,890 m.
5. Tokyo 2020 Olympic Road Race
6. Sylvain Chavanel, winner of three Tour de France stages, claimed his first victory as a jockey on the Dozulé grass track on May 13, 2021.
7. None
8. They are reenacting the finish of the 3rd stage of the 2005 Tour de France when the commissaries penalized McEwen for headbutting O’Grady.
9. Vincent Lavenu, AG2R La Mondiale Team Manager
10. To commemorate the Michele Dancelli win in Milano-San Remo 1970, Ernesto Colnago changed the logo from the eagle to the ‘Asso di Fiori’ (Ace of Clubs) later that year.
11. None. After seeing his ski jumping career end, he took up duathlon and triathlon and soon started to ride a bike.
12. Women: 27,500 €, Men :40,045 €
13. In One-day race: 1st infringement: CHF 500 fine and 25 points from UCI rankings, 2nd infringement: CHF 1000 fine, 50 points from UCI rankings, and elimination or disqualification.
In Stage race 1st infringement: CHF 500 fine and 25 points from UCI rankings, 2nd infringement: CHF 1000 fine, 50 points from UCI rankings and a 1-minute penalty, 3rd infringement: CHF 1500 fine, 75 points from UCI rankings and elimination or disqualification.
14. Kazakhstan, Bahrain, South Africa, and the United States of America.
15. Movistar
16. UCI: On July 12, 2021, the UCI provisionally suspended Edwin Ávila (Burgos-BH team) for an ADVR in a sample taken on May 31, 2021.
No-UCI: The night of July 15, 2021, French police searched for the hotel in Pau where the Bahrain-Victorious team was staying overnight and their action is part of a “preliminary investigation” opened by the Marseille Prosecutor’s Office for alleged doping practices.
17. Javier Guillén, General Manager at Unipublic and Vuelta a España
18. The initials are for Dutch State Mines, a company founded in 1902 to extract coal from the Limburg region.
19. Sean De Bie and Francesco Moser
20. Tro-Bro Léon
21. With a large sushi meal
22. Close to 1529 in France and 1068 in Italy
23. Kobe Goossens
24. Olav Kooij
25. Finn Fisher-Black
I gave it a go and knew answers to 1, 11, 20 and to picture round, had some ballpark figures or good guesses for 2, 3, 12, 16 and 21. Other answer provided by search engines; and I agree with Cascarinho every year it is easier to understand how to search for hidden Inrng answers.
1. Anton Palzer
2. It’s a tie between Tadej Pogačar, Primož Roglič, Wout van Aert and Lorena Wiebes with 13 wins each
3. 1:29 at Giro
4. Col du Portet 2215m (Stage 17, TDF)
5. Olympic Games Road Race
6. Sylvain Chavanel
7. 0
8. Recreation of the headbutting sprint on the 3rd stage of the 2005 TDF
9. Vincent Lavenu
10. Dancelli rode his Colnago as first Italian to win Milano-San Remo in 16 years and he felt like he had an ace up his sleeve that day. “Asso di Fiori” (Ace of Clubs) also have connection to “la citta’ dei fiori” (city of flowers) as city of San Remo is known in Italy
11. Cross-country skiing
12. €45,045 for men and €27,500 for women or 164% of that if self-employed
13. For 1st infringement CHF 500 fine and 25 points from UCI rankings. For following infringements depends, if it is one-day or stage race
14. Russia
15. Lotto-Soudal
16. In July when Avila (Burgos-BH) was provisionally suspended for positive test on May 31. Also in July De Bonis (Vinu Zabù) has been sanctioned for the presence of EPO in a sample collected on 16 February 2021.
17. The man who said that Vuelta is second most important race. Its director Javier Guillen
18. In original Dutch State Mines, but since company transfored and nowadays Doing Something Meaningful should be more relavant
19. Thomas Boudat, Alex Domont and honorable mention for sommelier Clément Chevrier
20. Tro-Bro Léon
21. Sushi
22. There are about 7000 passes in Italy, of which more than 1000 are paved roads and at least 1500 paved ones of more than 11000 passes in France. So good guess would be between 2500 and 3000 paved mountain passes in total
23. Kobe (Bryant) + goose + (Phoenix) Suns = Kobe Goossens
24. Olaf (Frozen) + koi (nishikigoi) = Olav Kooij
25. fin + fisher + (Chantal van der Broek-)Blaak = Finn Fischer-Black
A small correction, i.e. I cannot help being a Besserwisser: in harness racing there are no jockeys, they are drivers. Also in French, likewise a sulky is un sulky.
Chauvaunel – who was known as “Mimosa” in the peloton – won a race for amateurs (and probably earned a small percentage of the €4000 purse) is also a part-owner of a number of trotters.