Quiz Monkey |
Small motorised bicycle, used to set the pace in cycling events (e.g. the Keirin) – originally a make, first built in Paris 1938 | Derny | |
Event where riders are paced for about 2/3 of the distance, then sprint for victory; originated in Japan 1948, becoming an Olympic event for Sydney 2000 | Keirin | |
Event where teams (usually of two) take it in turns to ride; developed in the USA to circumvent laws restricting the length of events, and named after a prominent venue in New York | Madison | |
Multi–race event that replaced the individual pursuit, the points race and the Madison at the Olympic Games, starting at London 2012 | Omnium | |
Main body of riders in a road race (French word for a military unit – 'platoon' in English) | Peloton | |
Vehicle that follows road events to pick up riders who drop out | Sag wagon |
Four men have each won the Tour de France five times:
1957 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | (France) | Jacques Anquetil | |
1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1974 | (Belgium) | Eddy Merckx | |
1978 | 1979 | 1981 | 1982 | 1985 | (France) | Bernard Hinault | |
1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | (Spain) | Miguel Indurain |
The last of these four is the only one to have won it five times in a row.
Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven consecutive wins (1999–2005) in 2012.
2012 | Bradley Wiggins | |
2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017 | Chris Froome | |
2018 | Geraint Thomas |
Note that of these three, only the third was actually born in Great Britain. The first was born in Belgium, and the second in Kenya.
Italian rider whose 2014 win interrupted a run of six British wins out of seven | Vincenzo Nibali |
Once upon a time it was enough to know the colours of the jerseys worn by the leaders of the various classifications in the Tour de France. Then British riders started to achieve success in the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España; so now we need to know the equivalent colours for those as well.
From 1974 until 2012, the points leader in the Giro wore a green jersey.
For many years the points leader in the Vuelta wore a blue jersey with a yellow fish (for sponsorship reasons).
The so–called 'rainbow jersey' is worn (in various disciplines) by the | World champion |
First to win the Tour de France 5 times, 1958–64 – including 4 in a row 1961–4 | Jacques Anquetil | |
US rider, retired after a record seven consecutive Tour de France wins (1999–2005) – first to win more than 5 times; stripped of all seven wins in 2012 after a protracted doping scandal (even though he never actually failed a drug test) | Lance Armstrong | |
2019 Tour de France winner: from Colombia, the first winner from South America | Egon Bernal | |
Second UK rider to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France (1994; see Tom Simpson); crashed out in 1998 while wearing it for the third time | Chris Boardman | |
Dominated women's cycle racing in the UK throughout the 1960s and 70s, winning 7 world titles (including the world road race championship in 1960 and 1967), and more than 90 domestic championships; set a women's record for the 12–hour time–trial in 1967, which exceeded the men's record for two years; UK all–round time trial champion in 25 consecutive years, 1959–83; died of heart failure in 1996, while out delivering invitations for her 59th birthday party (on her bicycle) | Beryl Burton | |
Italian rider: died in the 1995 Tour de France – first since Tommy Simpson in 1967 | Fabio Casartelli | |
British cyclist (born Douglas, IoM, 1985): 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, 2008–21 – equalling Eddy Merckx's record) | Mark Cavendish | |
Spanish rider: Tour de France winner 2007, 2009 and 2010; stripped of the 2010 title after being found guilty of accidentally ingesting the prohibited substance Clenbuterol | Alberto Contador | |
British (Welsh) rider, won the World Cup in 2003 and 2006, and the Grand Boucle (Women's Tour de France) 2006; also won Britain's first gold medal in the 2008 (Beijing) Olympics | Nicole Cooke | |
Australian winner of the 2011 Tour de France – only the second from outside Europe (not including Lance Armstrong), and the first from the Southern Hemisphere | Cadel Evans | |
French cyclist: Tour de France winner in 1983 and 1984; narrowly missed out on a third win in 1989, when he finished second to Greg Lemond by the narrowest ever margin (8 seconds); died in 2010 of cancer, aged 50 | Laurent Fignon | |
Second British winner of the Tour de France (2013); also won in 2015, 2016 and 2017; also won the Vuelta a España in 2017 and the Giro d'Italia in 2018 (born in Kenya) | Chris Froome | |
Five Tour de France wins, 1978–85 – the last French rider to win (up to and including 2019); nicknamed Le blaireau (the Badger) | Bernard Hinault | |
Spanish rider: won the Tour de France a record 5 consecutive times (1991–5) | Miguel Indurain | |
Successful Irish rider of the 1980s – won the Paris–Nice race seven times in a row, 1982–8, but never won the Tour de France or a World Championship | Sean Kelly | |
US rider, stripped of the Tour de France title in 2006 after failing a drugs test | Floyd Landis | |
US rider, first non–European to win the Tour de France (1986, 1989, 1990) | Greg Lemond | |
Belgian who won the Tour de France five times 1969–74, including four successive years 1969–72; won 34 stages – a record, equalled by Mark Cavendish in 2021 | Eddy Merckx | |
Born in Yorkshire, 1930: first British rider to finish the Tour de France (1955) and first to win a stage (1958) | Brian Robinson | |
Irish rider, won the Tour de France in 1987 | Stephen Roche | |
First UK rider to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France; second rider to die in it (1967) | Tom Simpson | |
Six times British track cycling champion; and the most successful female British Paralympian of all time, with a total of 14 gold medals in cycling and swimming; appointed a Dame (DBE) in 2013 | Sarah Storey | |
The only German winner of the Tour de France (1997); retroactively banned from 2011, after being found guilty of a doping offence in 2012; admitted to blood doping in 2013 | Jan Ullrich | |
Second British winner of the Vuelta a España (2018 – the year after Chris Froome) | Simon Yates |
© Haydn Thompson 2017–22