Everyone Wins Trivia Quiz

The very first 'la Grande Boucle' (the Great Loop) started outside the cafe of Reveil-Matin in Montgeron, a suburb south east of Paris on 01 July 1903. When it ended some 2428 kilometres later on19 July, the Italian born Frenchman, Maurice Garin, cemented his place in cycling history as the first ever winner of the Tour de France. The man known as the 'Little Chimney Sweep', a reference to his occupation prior to cycling, won three out of the six stages including the first and never relinquished the lead. He finished in 94 hours, 33 minutes and 14 seconds, almost three hours ahead of Lucien Pothier who was second. What makes this feat even more remarkable is that Garin did it on a steel bike that weighed nearly 18 kilograms, that had no gears and also no brakes. To stop, one had to pedal backwards and then drag your feet on the ground.

Unfortunately, the next year he again made history, but this time for the wrong reason. Garin was initially declared the winner of the 1904 edition with Lucien Pothier once again in the runner up spot. However, it emerged that certain riders had taken a short cut along the route by using a train. Twelve of them including the first four in the initial classification were disqualified and Henri Cornet, the fifth place rider, was recorded as the victor. Garin thus became the first rider in Tour de France history to have his title stripped. After this incident, Garin retired from cycling and returned to his home in Lens, France, where he ran a motorcar garage. He died there on 19 February 1957 at the age of 85.

Gino Bartoli is one of the most famous cyclists ever to come out of Italy. He has the distinction of being the first rider to win the Tour de France with a span of ten years between wins, thanks to the upheaval wrought by World War II. Bartali was born in Florence in 1914 and was the dominant rider in the years leading up to the war. He won the Giro d'Italia in 1936 and 1937 and then took the Tour de France crown in 1938. A deeply religious man, known as Gino the Pious, he used his fame as a cycling hero to work for the Italian resistance and to save Jews from the Nazis during the war years. Under the pretext of training, he rode his bike back and forth across Italy ferrying messages and documents. It is estimated that he saved as many as 630 Jews from an otherwise certain death. In 2013, 13 years after his death in 2000 at the age of 85, he was named by Yad Veshem, the Holocaust memorial, as one of the "Righteous Among the Nations" for his efforts.

After the war, he resumed his professional racing career and his rivalry with Fausto Coppi became one of the legendary rivalries of the sport. In 1946, he won the Giro d'Italia for a third time and then in 1948, some ten years after his first victory, he won the world's greatest race for a second time. During this edition he became the first rider to win three consecutive mountain summit stages when he dominated stage 13-15 (many sports historians believe that this feat will not be repeated).

Gino Bartali dominated the era prior to World War II. Another Italian, Fausto Coppi, picked up his mantle following the war. Between 1940 and 1953, the man known as "Il Campionissimo" or Champion of Champions, by the Italian media, won five Giro d'Italia titles, two Tour de France crowns and a rainbow jersey of World Champion. The first of his Tour de France victories came in 1949 when his unseated his great rival, Gino Bartali, to become champion. The rivalry between Coppi and Bartali is the stuff of legends in cycling history and it hard to talk about one without mentioning the other. It divided Italy into two camps. The conservative, religious man from the South in Bartali versus the urbane, flamboyant Coppi with his unconventional personal life gave the media much fodder and provided something for the war weary Italians to argue about.

Fausto Coppi was born in Castelliania, Italy on 15 September 1919 and there a few that would argue that he was one of the first 'superstars' of cycling. He was an all-rounder capable of winning both one day races and Grand Tours. He completed the Giro/Tour double in 1949 and again in 1952, going on the following year to take the World Championship title. Unfortunately his life was tragically cut short on 2 January 1960 when, at the age of 40, he died of malaria which he contracted while riding the 1959 Tour of Upper Volta (today Burkino Faso).

With his unbeatable prowess against the clock and his ability to limit his losses in the mountains to more specialized climbers, Jacques Anquetil dominated Grand Tour racing in the early part of the 1960s. He won his debut Tour de France in 1957 by nearly 15 minutes, collecting four individual stages along the way. He then went on to become the first man to win the Tour de France five times taking consecutive victories from 1961 to 1964. During this period, "Maitre Jacques", as he was known, also became the first man to win all three of cycling's Grand Tours with victories in the 1960 and 1964 Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana in 1963 to add to his palmares.

Jacques Anquetil was born in Mont Saint-Aignan on 08 January 1954, the son of a builder. He started riding a bike at the age of four and took out his first racing license in 1950 at the age of 17. After winning a bronze medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki in the 100 kilometre time trial, he joined the French national team for the elite Grand Prix des Nations. He was never beaten in this event, winning it nine times between 1953 and 1966. This domination against the clock earned him the nickname of "Monsieur Chrono". Jacques Anquetil died in Rouen on 09 November 1987 at the age of 53. Although never as popular with the French public as his great rival Raymond Poulidor, Anquetil's cycling achievements are undeniable.

The problem with writing about the great Belgian rider, Eddy Merckx and his achievements, is where to start and how to describe the most successful rider cycling has ever seen in a couple of paragraphs. If you follow cycling and look up records, you will find that most start with the words 'the first rider' or 'the only rider' to achieve this was Eddy Merckx. He was the complete package as a rider, as equally successful in one day races as he was in Grand Tours with a staggering 525 professional victories to his name. These include five Tour de France titles, five Giro d'Italia victories and one Vuelta a Espana crown, all five of cycling's monuments and three World Championships titles. In 1974 he was the first rider to claim cycling's Triple Crown - the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and the World Championships in a single season.

The first of the five Tour de France titles came in 1969 when he finished nearly 18 minutes ahead of the second placed rider, Roger Pingeon. He also became the first rider to win all three of the major classifications - general, points and mountains in that edition. As at the end of 2022 season, the feat has not been equalled. Between 1965 and 1978, he dominated men's cycling to the extent that it is no wonder he was nicknamed "The Cannibal" for his insatiable quest for victory.

If ever there was a rider designed to take over the mantle of 'patron' of the peloton from Eddy Merckx, it was the pugnacious and stubborn Frenchman, Bernard Hinault. Nicknamed "Le Blaireau" (The Badger) because of his tenacity and attacking style, Hinault was never one to take a backward step for anyone. When asked about his nickname in 2003, he stated that "A badger is a beautiful thing. When it's hunted it goes into its sett and waits. When it comes out again, it attacks. That's the reason for my nickname. When I'm annoyed I go home, you don't see me for a month. When I come out again, I win." This sums up the man who achieved something even Eddy Merckx couldn't; he won all three of cycling Grand Tours - twice. His first Tour de France victory came in the 1978 edition where he won three individual stages. He would go on to win it a further four times joining an elite club of five time winners in 1985. He also boasts three Giro d'Italia victories and two Vuelta a Espana wins to add to his tally as well as three World Championship titles. Victories in three of cycling's monuments, Paris Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Il Lomardia are also part of his palmares.

Bernard Hinault was born in Yiffniac in Brittany, France on 14 November 1954. He turned professional in 1975 and notched up 146 professional victories before he retired in 1986, a season marked by his immense tussle with his teammate, Greg Lemond, in that year's Tour de France. From his retirement until he stepped down in 2016, Bernard Hinault was a familiar face at the Tour de France in an administrative role during the daily podium presentations.

Greg LeMond will probably always be best known for his last gasp snatching of victory from Frenchman, Laurent Fignon in the final time trial to win the 1989 Tour de France by eight seconds. His victory stunned the cycling world as he was not expected to make up the 50 second deficit in such a short distance. It also crowned a remarkable comeback for man who, two years prior, had come close to dying after being shot in a hunting accident. However, this was not LeMond's first victory in the Tour. He took that in the 1986 edition when he thwarted his teammate, Bernard Hinault's attempt to win his sixth title after a battle that had enthralled the watching world. In doing so he became the first American to win the world's biggest race.

Greg Lemond was born on 26 June 1961 in Lakewood, California and turned to cycling as a way of keeping fit in the skiing off season. He showed a remarkable aptitude for the sport and turned professional in 1981. In 1983, he became the first male American cyclist to win a World Road Race Championship when he won in Altenrhein, Switzerland. After riding his first two Tours in a support role, he entered in 1986 Tour as a team co-leader with Bernard Hinault and made history. His comeback in 1989 was nothing short of remarkable and he proved that the win was no flash in the pan by backing it up with a win in the 1990 edition to give him his third victory. His win in the World Championship a few weeks later in Chambery, France led him to being named "Sports Illustrated"'s "Sportsman of the Year" for 1989. Greg LeMond retired from competitive racing in 1994.

Miguel Indurain is the quiet and modest Spaniard who let his legs do his talking for him. From his first Tour de France victory in 1991, he would go on to win four more - in a row, making him the first and (as at the end of 2022) only rider to win five consecutive Tours. During these years, he also added two Giro d'Italia crowns to his tally doing the fabled Giro/Tour double in 1992 and again in 1993. A superb time triallist, he employed a similar method to that which brought Jacques Anquetil his victories; limit your losses in the mountains against the specialist climbers, no mean feat for a man who weighed 78 kilograms, and then take time in the time trials. Of the 12 stage victories, he took in the Tour, 10 of them were in time trials. Funnily enough, the two road stages he won were not in the years where he eventually claimed the overall title.

Miguel Indurain was born on 16 July 1964 in the village of Villava, Spain just outside Pamplona. After trying different sports, he settled on cycling and rode his first race as a junior in July 1978. He turned professional in 1984 and won his first race a week later. His palmares also includes a World Time Trial Championship in 1995 and an Olympic gold medal in the Individual Time Trial which he won in Atlanta in 1996, after his attempt for a sixth title in the Tour de France had come unstuck. On 1 January 1997, he announced his retirement from competitive racing.

2013 saw the Tour de France celebrating its 100th edition. The honour of winning the centenary edition went to the Kenyan born British rider, Chris Froome, who finished four minutes and twenty seconds ahead of Nairo Quintana in second. Froome would go on to win three more Tour titles taking victory from 2015 to 2017. Froome is a member of the select group of riders who have won all three Grand Tours, twice winning the Vuelta a Espana in 2011 and 2017. In 2018 he added the elusive Giro d'Italia to his palmares after a long range 80 kilometre solo attack on stage 19 to take over the lead.

Chris Froome was born in Nairobi, Kenya to British parents on 20 May 1985. He grew up both there and in South Africa where he did most of his education. At the age of 22, he turned professional for a South African team. In 2008, he switched his nationality and took out a British racing license. His quest to win a fifth Tour de France title took a serious setback on 19 June 2019 when he suffered from multiple injuries incurred during a high speed crash during a practice ride for the fourth stage of the Criterium de Dauphine.

In 2019, Slovenian Tadej Pogacar became the youngest rider to win a UCI World Tour race when he took the title at the Tour of California. He was just 20 years of age. He followed that up later in the same year where he finished third and won the Best Young Rider Classification at the Vuelta a Espana in his first ever participation in a Grand Tour. Since then, he has swept through the professional peloton like a tornado. He claimed his first Tour de France title on debut in 2020 when he overtook the lead of fellow Slovenian, Primoz Roglic, in the final individual time trial. In doing so, he won three major classifications, only missing out on the green points jersey. The astonishing thing is that he repeated this feat the following year.

Tadej Pogacar was born in Komenda, Slovenia on 21 September 1998 and started cycling at the age of nine. There is a legendary story about how he was "discovered" by Andrej Hauptman, the head coach of the Slovenian national cycling team. Apparently Hauptman was watching a race at a local club and was concerned to see a young cyclist trailing behind the rest of the field of much older boys. He asked if something could be done to assist the youngster, only to be told that said youngster was actually catching the field and about to lap them. That youngster was Tadej Pogacar. Pogacar was widely expected to add a third Tour title to his name in 2022 edition only to be thwarted by the young Danish rider, Jonas Vingegaard. The tussle between the two was enthralling.