23 | December | 2012

We don’t know about you, but we’ve gorged ourselves on turkey and finished the last of the eggnog here at VeloVoices Towers and we are most certainly full of the Christmas spirit (hic). But before we depart for the holidays, what better way to look back on 2012 than with that most traditional of seasonal pastimes – a quiz of the year?

So for your delectation here are 50 questions – in ten categories of five questions each – to wrap your brains around, ranging from the straightforward to the downright fiendish. You’ll find all the answers somewhere within the pages of the blog. There are no prizes for getting everything right other than the warm glow of satisfaction that comes from knowing you’re a clever-clogs who people will look up to admiringly (or glare at with jealousy).

2012 UCI WorldTour

1. Name the first and last races chronologically on the 2012 WorldTour calendar.

2. Which rider finished top of the individual rider rankings?

3. Who were the top-ranked team at the end of the year?

4. Two riders each won four WorldTour events – name them.

5. Which new race was included on the WorldTour calendar, only to be postponed before it could be held?

Spring Classics

Name the following Classic and semi-classic races from their 2012 podium finishers:

6. Simon Gerrans, Fabian Cancellara, Vincenzo Nibali

7. Enrico Gasparotto, Jelle Vanendert, Peter Sagan

8. Maxim Iglinsky, Vincenzo Nibali, Enrico Gasparotto

9. Tom Boonen, Filippo Pozzato, Alessandro Ballan

10. Sep Vanmarcke, Tom Boonen, Juan Antonio Flecha

Giro d’Italia

Ryder Hesjedal (image by Panache)

11. What country does overall winner Ryder Hesjedal hail from?

12. Which sprinter initiated a controversial crash at the end of stage three and later went on to win his maiden Giro stage?

13. Who, having won his first ever professional race at the 2011 Giro, promptly won his second in this year’s edition?

14. Which rider won the queen stage of the race on top of the Passo dello Stelvio, propelling him to a podium finish?

15. Which was the only individual classification won by an Italian rider, and who won it?

Tour de France

16. Bradley Wiggins became the first British rider to win the Tour de France. Which Sky teammate finished as runner-up?

17. Wiggins won both of the long individual time trials, but who won the opening prologue?

18. Two 22-year olds won stages at this year’s race. Peter Sagan was one, but who was the other?

19. Which American rider claimed the white jersey en route to fifth overall?

20. A statistical oddity: Sky riders finished fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh in the points classification. Who were they?

Vuelta a Espana

John Degenkolb (image courtesy of Argos-Shimano)

21. How many stages did overall champion Alberto Contador win during the race?

22. How many stages did Argos-Shimano sprinter John Degenkolb win?

23. Which rider was the surprise early leader for the first two days of the race?

24. Stage 16 to the summit of Cuitu Negru provided a titanic showdown among the GC contenders on some of the toughest slopes the Vuelta has ever seen. But who won the stage?

25. Whose streak of four consecutive King of the Mountains titles was broken by Simon Clarke?

The Eternal Seconds

Everyone remembers a winner, but who was the runner-up in each of the following races?

26. Paris-Roubaix

27. Tour de Suisse

28. Olympic men’s road race

29. Vuelta a Espana

30. Road World Championships men’s road race

Who am I?

Name the rider from the following descriptions. (Clue: each one has been followed by one of the VeloVoices as one of our ‘riders to watch’ in 2012.)

31. I won five stages at the Tour of California before going on to parade a variety of movie-based victory celebrations at the Tour de France.

32. My early season form in a new team was blighted – literally – by teething problems, but I finished the year on a high with notable victories in Spain and the Netherlands.

33. It was a year of #unluck for me. If it wasn’t people crashing into me, I was either breaking my collarbone or taking a tumble at the Olympics. At least I had the consolation of seeing the birth of my second child.

34. Questions remain over whether I bought one of my past victories, but I did secure some gold this summer to help see me into retirement.

35. It’s been a colourful year for me. I briefly looked pretty in pink during the spring and just missed out twice at the Olympics but ended the year with silver while wearing red, white and blue. Maybe next year I might get the opportunity to sample gold?

Oddities

Tony Martin (image courtesy of OPQS)

36. Only one of this year’s three Grand Tours started in its ‘home’ country. Which one?

37. In ten stages over two editions of the Tour of Beijing, Tony Martin has held the red race leader’s jersey for all but one day. Who is the only other rider to have led the GC in this race?

38. Of the 28 individual WorldTour events, only one featured a final podium of riders who are all from the same country. Which race and which nationality?

39. We all know cycling is a team sport, but which rider was individually responsible for scoring 60% of his team’s WorldTour points in 2012?

40. A pair of German riders won back-to-back rainbow jerseys in the elite individual time trial events at the Road World Championships. Name them.

VeloVoices Awards

The following questions all relate to nominees in our recent VeloVoices Awards.

41. Which normally mild-mannered rider lost his cool and attempted to storm the Argos-Shimano team bus at the Tour de Framce?

42. What is the name of the CEO of the US Anti-Doping Agency, whose ‘reasoned decision’ brought about the downfall of Lance Armstrong?

43. Who produced a thrilling victory at the Tour of Turkey, holding off the peloton despite dropping his chain inside the final kilometre?

44. What is the name of the FDJ directeur sportif who provided one of the most exciting sights of this year’s Tour as he shouted his support for Thibaut Pinot all the way along the final kilometre en route to a memorable stage victory?

45. Which 2011 Grand Tour champion finished a lowly 30th and 67th in his two Grand Tour participations in 2012?