40 questions. Some easy, some that will defeat Google and as usual a few of the answers give us a sideways look at the sport…
1. Dressed in red and white, he’s delivering the goods amid the cold conditions. Name this bicycling Santa Claus?
2. Who won the Tour of Turkey?
3. Name a World Tour win by a guy named Jesus.
2022 in Review
4. Name a town in Australia that has an ocean saltwater swimming pool.
5. See the picture above, what happened next?
6. Who won the Tour of Britain?
7. Name a Tour de France stage winner who was facing unemployment this time last year?
8. Everyone knows Primož Roglič was a ski jumper, right? Name a Tour de France yellow jersey wearer from last summer who’s been a champion in another sport.
9. Which pro had the most wins in 2022?
10. Which men’s World Tour race had the least finishers?
Geography
11. What was the highest altitude summit finish in the men’s World Tour this year?
12. Colle San Carlo, Passo Carrabile, Passo dello Stelvio, which is the odd one out?
13. Which World Tour race went through Balsac?
Business
14. What line of business is Groupama in?
15. Which team sponsor has the biggest market capitalisation of all?
16. Who is the richest man in pro cycling?
Stats and trivia
17. When was the last time Paris-Roubaix started in Paris?
18. Name a grand tour winner who never won a one day race.
19. Which rider wore the yellow jersey for the shortest amount of time?
20. World Tour teams are capped at 30 riders today but they have been bigger before. What was the biggest team ever?
History
21. This could be the hardest grand tour stage ever. To save readers from squinting at the profile, it’s 247km and goes via the Glandon, Madeleine, Aravis, Colombière before the Joux-Plane. Name the day’s winner.
22. The Tour de France will start in Italy in 2024. Which Italian town did the race first visit for a stage finish?
23. If you want a groupset today it’s Shimano, Sram or Campagnolo. Name three more alternative groupset manufacturers from the past.
Chief Commissaire
24. Apart from the label, cite two differences between a prologue and an opening time trial.
25. Do riders have a racing licence from the country they represent or the country they reside in?
26. Some races have neutral starts or roll outs. What’s the maximum permitted distance between neutral start and the real start?
Nicknames
27. Who is the Taureau de Lescheret, the Bull of Lescheret?
28. Name the grand tour podium finisher from this year who has a bovine logo?
29. Name a rider from the past with a bovine nickname?
30. Which retiring World Tour rider’s fan club has this logo?
31. Which rider is nicknamed Nono by team mates?
Real names
32. What does Pogačar sort of mean in English? And Vingegaard?
33. Name the rider whose name is an anagram of Ghosted Tandem.
34. Name two unrelated World Tour pros who share the same surname.
Tech
34.1. Name a men’s World Tour race won in rim brakes this year.
35. Bianchi, Lapierre and Orbea can sound more exotic than Trek, Scott or Giant to English-speakers but what is their literal translation in English?
36. No need for the precise year but which was the first decade when you could get major race results online?
Picture round
38. Name the rider from the picture above.
39. Name the rider from the picture above.
40. Name the rider from the picture 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 small prize.
Small print: the deadline is midday Euro Time on Thursday 29 December. The most correct answers wins and if there’s a tie then a name gets picked at random. As ever people can copy off each other which spoils the point but readers enjoyable more often collaborate than argue so together there’s a way to get plenty of answers. As ever 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 soon. Merry Christmas and Happy holidays…
Balsacs are funny. 🙂
1. Zinging Zingle, quite close to Santa’s own home up there in the Arctic Circle
2. Digging his way through from the very opposite side of the world (or so), Paddy Bevin from Taupo to Turkey
3. Much love to share for Cofidis, here, Herrada getting the Cistierna Vuelta stage (Fred Wright podiuming again…)
4. Wollongong’s got several of course, but I’ll go with Bronte for the pistachos and the bloody (literally) repression of peasants asking for land distribution to Garibaldi’s army (as you might have guessed, there’s another Bronte in Italy, beautiful place but far from the sea).
5. Happy Cosnefroy will get less happy once Amstel photofinish gets out (Amstel and photofinish…)
6. The Queen’s departure helped Movistar’s 2023 WT bid as Serrano won the race once the last stages got cancelled.
7. Clarke was a victim of Qhubeka’s folding.
40. Évita Muzic
35. Whites, The-Stone, Strawberry Field (other options are possible but this is more interesting given the country-life or UK reference above)
33. Thomas De Gendt, what a stage in Naples
30. Hideto Nakane (he actually ended his career as a WT athlete thanks to the sponsor’s help, but what a tricky definition!)
27. 28. 29. De Lie, Ayuso, Pieri (Toro di Scandicci)… Lampaert is a bull, too, but not yet in the past.
25. Or do they represent the country they’re licensed by? Residence doesn’t factor in, or Andorra and Montecarlo would sweep the Worlds.
24. Prologue must be short (up to 8 km) and if you DNF you can still start stage 1.
23. Gipiemme, Simplex, Sachs
22. San_Remo 1948 (?)
Uff, have to discontinue now
Me above
1. Tim Wellens
2. Patrick Bevin
3. Vuelta stage 7
4. Woollongong
5. Kwiatkowski named winner of Amstel
6. Alex Aranburu
7. Simon Clarke
8. Wout Van Aert? Is cyclocross another sport?
9. Lorena Wiebes
10. Paris-Nice
11. Col du Granon
12. Passo carrabile is not a pass
13. Tour de France?
14. Insurance
15. Cofidis?
16. Jim Ratcliffe?
17. 1959
18. Jai Hindley
19. Yves Lampaert, but probably not the right answer
20. no idea
21. Peter Winnen maybe?
22. Sanremo
23. no idea
24. Prologue is under 8 km and there is no OTL rule
25. Represent?
26. no idea
27. Arnaud De Lie
28. Pogacar
29. Johnny Hoogerland
30. Hideto Nakane
31. Arnaud Démare
32. Baker. Vineyard.
33. Thomas De Gendt
34. Chris and Lucas Hamilton (De Gendts would’ve been too easy)
35. no idea
36. Bianchi = Whites. Lapierre = The Peter? Orbea = Orb.
37. 90’s probably
38. Jay Vine
39. Warren Barguil?
40. no idea.
I’ve got some answers, but the saddest answer of all is
29. Richard Moore
21. Michaud. Arroyo moral winner. Fignon sealed his GC success. Van Impe rode a strange stage but he’d be 4th and 4th in final GC, too, his last top 5 in a GT at 37, and final KOM jersey for him.
10. & 13. Pa-Ni. …you love too much this race, inrng!
18. Froome.
16. The richest of ’em all, Arnault, at least while LVMH is among L Catterton’s owner and the latter doesn’t sell Pinarello.
31. Another Arnó (Démare)
32. Cake maker and vineyard (see Vine below)
34. C.arlos and C.ristian Rodríguez both WT in 2023, George and Sam Bennett… Sam and Tom Dumoulin already retired!
12. ^___^ Lots of Passo Carrabile in Italy, but none is a GPM (unless that garage ramp is really hard)
9. Wiebes. She was also a gymnastics athlete, but not a champion I’ d say (for 8… because WVA’s CX isn’t actually another sport, is it?).
15. Telefónica (Movistar)?
14. Mutual insurer
17. 1965 if you consider Saint Denis is sort of Paris, otherwise it’s 1939
26. 10 kms according to La Voix du Nord / Le Figaro, but they could be wrong… I won’t look into the Uci rulebook, anyway, that’s inrng’s job
11. Sierra Nevada – and they should have gone higher, even!
34. Tech… hummm, some ITT or uphill finish? I’ll search further.
Applause to redvani for Warren Barguil. I’d pronounce Gil(bert) as Jill-bert and I’d never get to Barguil. I was thinking about some Israel Lev Bar-something rider ^___^
34 Tech (btw. 34 is double): Pogi on Carpegna TA
Very very well spot. As I expected, I found something in a ITT, too, namely Sobrero in Verona.
8. Is this Lampaert being a junior Judo champion?
34. Enric and Lluís Mas
23. One or more… Mavic, Suntour, Miche
Citroen being part of Stellantis overcomes Telefonica, I wasn’t aware they had become a Stellantis brand. Still don’t know if there’s someone bigger in terms of market capitalisation (Ineos doesn’t have a market capitalisation because of the type of property, does it?). UHC (which doesn’t count here because it isn’t WT) used to be the biggest sponsor in terms of market value, and they’re still on board with many others in UPH, but I really don’t know how tht sponsorship is working now.
The man who most briefly wore the yellow jersey was Pollentier after his Riis-icule Alpe win. He got podium honors and wore the jersey only to fail in the most spectacular way the subsequent testing. Back he was to the red tracksuit, faster than anybody else.
Otherwise, we might look for one-day yellow jersey wearers who lost it after an ITT, preferably a short one. In case we refer to the shortest stint in yellow in a single race, not in a whole career (not clear above), perhaps some champion from the previous year who decided to wear yellow in the prologue and immediately lost it… say Perico Delgado 1989, a good story in itself.
Question 23: add Zeus, but not sure that Simplex ever made complete sets
Reportedly, in the early 50s they produced what was called a “full system”, front and back. Of course much depend on the definition of “groupset”, but the relevance of Simplex in pro cycling is undeniable.
Mavic ZAP. Notably ridden to three TdF stage wins by Tony Rominger and Chris Boardman.
Also FSA are still testing a groupset.
Question 20: Without looking it up, I guess La
Vie Claire bankrolled by Tapie. There are promo films of them all riding in those knitted hats with the Mondrian Look, and the paceline is endless.
..and I was Q23 above
19 – Alex Stieda the Canadian in 1986 [Lemond/Hinault era] wasn’t it a 1/2 stage?
Question 20: I’ll say Mapei. The teams of the late 90s had a huge roster.
Mapei 2001: 41 riders
41 riders in the team photo but a whopping 44 listed on PCS
1. Coquard
2. Bevin
3. Herrada
5. VAR gave the Amstel win to Kwiatkowski instead
6. Serrano
7. Simon Clarke
9. Lorena Wiebes
14. Insurance
15. Movistar
16. Mohammed bin Zayed. Then Jim Ratcliffe
17. 1964?
18. Chris Froome
19. Jan Jansen
20. Mapei in the 90s
24. Length (8km) and only 1min time gaps for prologue
25. Residency
26. 10km
28. Enric Mas
29. Richard ‘The Buffalo’ Moore (1998 Scotland Commonwealth team). Otherwise Jose Gutierrez
34. Sam & George Bennett
34.1 Paris-Roubaix
35. White, The Peter or The Rock, Orb?
36. Late 80s
37. No question so default answer: Eddy Merckx
38. Jay Vine
39. Warren Barguil
40. Evita Musik (maybe big football fan Pinot – Don’t cry for me Argentina)
Traveling days, so I’m launching a long sprint after those early moves… we’ll se if it’s going to be a van der Poel’s Amstel of sort or one of his less successful Giro stages. Now that I have some more time (just a little, actually) I’ll also try to put the answer in the right order!
1. Axel Zingle close to the Arctic Circle
2. Patrick Bevin
3. Herrada at the Vuelta a España (stage 7)
4. Wollongong (…or Bronte if you please)
5. The photofinish awards Amstel’s win to Kwiatkowski and Cosnefroy comes up as 2nd placed
6. Gonzalo Serrano
7. Simon Clarke
8. Yves Lampaert in judo (me wheelsucking here)
9. Lorena Wiebes
10. Paris-Nice
11. Sierra Nevada at the Vuelta a España
12. Passo Carrabile not an Alpine pass
13. Paris-Nice stage 3
14. Mutual insurer
15. Stellantis (Citroen)
16. Bernard Arnault as owner of Pinarello (through L Catterton, which after the LVMH-Groupe Arnault fusion with previous Catterton is now his vehicle for investments)
17. Depending on how you look at Sant Denis, 1939 or 1965 (the latter if you consider Saint Denis as a legit part of Paris in factual terms rather than focussing on current administrative organisation: yes, it’s a commune but still an official part of Metropolitan Paris)
18. Chris Froome
19. I like Perico Delgado 1989’s Prologue (wearing the maillot jaune) and Pollentier’s picaresque (wore it on the podium), but if you want something more traditional, then André Darrigade in 1961, he won the Versailles 1st semitappa and so wore it for some 45 minutes in the short afternoon ITT where he lost it
20. Very hard without specific research, but I’ll go with Poulidor’s Mercier-BP-Hutchinson listed at over 50 riders for 1960
21. Jacques Michaud… riding for Mercier! See above for more details.
22. San_Remo
23. Gipiemme, Simplex, Sachs, then wheelsucking on others also Zeus and Mavic look a good call
24. Prologue must be short (up to 8 km) and if you DNF you can still start stage 1.
25. I had misunderstood the question. Federation of the *country of residence* must issue the licence, where sporting nationality (which is a different matter) is confirmed but can correspond to another State (and must be the rider’s natonality)
26. 10 km
27. Arnaud De Lie
28. Juan Ayuso
29. Dario Pieri
30. Hideto Nakane
31. Arnaud Démare
32. Cake maker. Vineyard.
33. Thomas De Gendt
34. Sam Bennett, George Bennett
34. 1 Uae Tour, Jabel Hafeet; Carpegna at Ti-Ad; Verona last Giro stage
35. Whites, TheStone, Strawberry field (it’s rather a lot in the sense of land, usually the surname is associated to a madroño/corbezzolo field)
36. The 80s on Minitel
38. Jay Vine
39. Warren Barguil (wheelsucking)
40. Évita Music
Kudos to Rich for 37 above!
Bit late, but here goes.
1. Axel Zingle
2. Patrick Bevin
3. Jesus Herrada, Vuelta stage 7
4. Wollongong
5. Cosnefroy got told he didn’t win after all.
5. Gonzalo Serrano
7. Simon Clarke
8. Yves Lampaert, judo
9. Lorena Wiebes
10. Paris – Nice
11. Col du Granon 2413m.
12. Passo carrabile (that’s not a climb)
13. Paris – Nice, stage 3
14. Insurance
15. Stellantis
16. Jim Ratcliffe
17. 1967
18. Roger Walkowiak
19. Patrick Sercu
20. Team Sky 2011 (31)?
21. Peter Winnen
22. San Remo 1948
23. Simplex, Suntour, Zeus (Orbea)
24. A prologue has a maximum length and doesn’t count as ‘stage 1’. You don’t have to finish to start the next stage.
25. Country you reside in
26. 10 km
27. Arnoud de Lie
28. I don’t really get this question, but I found a picture of Carapaz milking a cow, so there’s that
29. Thorwald Veneberg (El Torro)
30. Hideto Nakane
31. Arnaud Demare
32. Talkative, Vineyard
33. Thomas De Gendt
34. Thomas De Gendt & Aimé De Gendt
34.1 Strade Bianche, Pogacar
35. Bianchi – Whites / Lapierre – Stone / Orbea – The orb
36. 80s
37. Thanks for the quiz
38. Jay Vine
39. Warren Barguil
40. Évita Muzic
I just started the quiz without reading any further, so I spent at least 10 hours torturing myself to find answers that were already in the comments.
Fewer riders finished Itzulia than Paris-Nice.
I hope you get a kickback from PCS for the increase in page views.
Just as a curiosity, Ratcliffe looks very wealthy but cycling *had* at least a couple of richer (double or so!) guys around, probably richer than M. bin Zayed, even, that is Del Vecchio (Oakley), deceased, and Ferrero who sponsored the Giro and more (but they slowly went retiring sponsorship after Pietro’s death, dunno if there’s something left).
Applause to d. nixon, hugely hard to spot by memory only, because it all apparently happened in the last stage (at the very end of it, better said; that is, well after the end of the broadcasting), so the very nitable fact never got commented live.
I think Bernard Arnault (CEO of LVMH – worth $181B) owns Pinarello via a holding company
Good point, didn’t even think about the Bahrein and UAE owners. My bad.
1. Axel Zingle (Cofidis) wins the first stage of the Arctic Race.
2. Patrick Bevin (Israel – Premier Tech).
3. Jesús Herrada (COF) won the seventh stage of Vuelta a España.
4. Wollongong (New South Wales, Australia), the host city for the 2022 UCI World Championships, has three saltwater pools: Continental, Port Kembla, and Thorroul.
5. While Benoît Cosnefroy (ACT) and his teammates congratulate each other because he believes he has won the Amstel Gold Race 2022, the commissaries announce that Michal Kwiatkowski was the winner.
6. Gonzalo Serrano (MOV). With three stages remaining of the eight initially planned, the Tour of Britain was canceled following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
7. Simon Clarke (Israel – Premier Tech), winner of the fifth stage of the Tour, was out of contract as of mid-December 2021 after Qhubeka ASSOS confirmed that it would be shuttering its WorldTour team at the end of the year.
8. Yves Lampaert (QST) was the Belgian judo champion at the beginning of the century in the category of cadets under 42 kilos.
9. Women: Lorena Wiebes (DSM) had 23 wins (>=.1); Men: Tadej Pogačar (UAD) had 16 wins (>=.1)
10. Itzulia Basque Country had only 54 finishers.
11. Alto Hoya de la Mora, Sierra Nevada, the finish of stage 15 of Vuelta a España, with 2507 m was the highest altitude summit finish in the men’s World Tour 2022.
12. Passo Carrabile = Railway crossing.
13. Third stage of Paris-Nice.
14. Groupama (Groupe des Assurances Mutuelles Agricoles) is a French insurance group.
15. Among publicly traded companies, the team sponsor with the biggest market capitalization is the Danish multinational pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk with $300.47 Billion USD
16. Jim Ratcliffe, Ineos owner, has an estimated wealth of $10.8 Billion USD.
17. In 1939 from Porte Maillot, Paris; considering that Saint-Denis (departure between 1943 and 1965) is not a part of the city of Paris
18. Luis Alberto Herrera, El Jardinerito de Fusagasugá, winner of Vuelta a España 1987.
19. We could consider three cases of cyclists who wore the maillot jeune only once in their careers:
Total time used: The Belgian Michel Pollentier, winner of the 16th stage of the Tour de France 1978 in Alpe d’Huez, received the yellow jersey on the podium. He was put out of the race a few minutes later for violating the anti-doping rules.
Time used on road: Considering exclusively road time, the rider who wore the maillot jeune the least amount of time was Gilbert Philippe, who got it at the end of the first stage and wore it during the second stage of the 2011 Tour, a team time trial, where he rode 25 min and 27 sec with his Omega Pharma-Loto team.
Time used in between receipt on the podium and on the road: In total, including the time between stages, the rider who wore the jersey the least amount of time was Belgian Julien Schepens; he got the jersey in the first semi-stage of the 1960 tour that was run on the morning of June 26 and lost it on the end of the second semi-stage run in the afternoon of the same day, an individual time trial where he spent 48:44 and lost the lead.
20. The team Mapei – Quick Step 2001 had 41 riders registered with the UCI.
21. Jacques Michaud was the winner of this stage; the 18th stage of the Tour de France 1983. The second was Angel Arroyo with a delay of 1:11 and the third, was the Colombian Edgar “Condorito” Corredor, with a delay of 2:15.
22. Ligurian resort of San Remo hosted the finish of a stage in 1948 that had begun in Marseille.
23. Sun Tour, Huret and Simplex.
24. 1. The prologue must not exceed 8 km; for an elite or juniors women’s or juniors men’s race, the prologue must be less than 4 km; 2. Any rider who suffers an accident during the prologue and is unable to complete the distance shall nevertheless be permitted to race the following day and be credited with the time of the last ranked rider.
25. The licence shall be issued by the federation of the country where, according to the legislation of that country, the applicant has his main residence at the time of application. He shall remain affiliated with that federation until the expiry of the licence, even if he changes his country of residence.
26. The real start will be given – flying or standing – at a point no more than 10 km from the assembly point.
27. Arnaud De Lie
28. Juan Ayuso, third on Vuelta a España
29. Luis Alberto Camargo: El Torito (The Little Bull), Guido Bontempi: The Buffalo or Thor Hushovd: The Norwegian Bull.
30. Hideto Nakane
31. Arnaud Démare
32. Pogačar = Cake maker; Vingegaard = Vineyard.
33. Thomas De Gendt
34. Jake Stewart and Campbell Stewart or Geraint Thomas and Benjamin Thomas
34.1 The 6th stage of Tirreno-Adriatico was won by Tadej Pogačar using rim brakes.
35. Bianchi = Whites, Lapierre = The stone, Orbea = Orb”
36. In the mid-1990s
38. Jay Vine
39. Warren Barguil
40. Évita Muzic
One point less for having failed in the not-requested translation of Passo Carrabile 😛
Well played, I’ve been impressed by 19. but I loved 18.
Thanks 😊