Tour de France History Trivia Quiz

Answer: 60

Géo Lefèvre was the man behind the idea of the Tour de France, although Henri Desgrange was the first organizer of the Tour. He worked for a magazine called L'Auto. The original idea was for the race to be five weeks long. That was changed after only fifteen riders entered; it was cut to three weeks.

After the change 60 riders entered. The first Tour de France took place in 1903; it was only six stages long. A Frenchman, Maurice Garin, won the first ever Tour de France.

Answer: 1911

The Pyrenees were first included in 1910. After the success of adding the Pyrenees to the Tour de France the organizer, Henri Desgrange, added the Alps. The Tour makes a yearly pass through these mountain chains.

Answer: Lance Armstrong

Lance was born in Plano, Texas on September 18, 1971. He won his first Tour de France and 1999 and kept winning until 2005, where he retired from cycling. On September 9, 2008 Lance announced that he would comeback to cycling. He said it was to raise awareness about cancer.
He was disqualified in 2012 and stripped of all victories.

Answer: 1989

This competition first originated in 1971. Pieter Nassen, a Belgian native, won the first competition, there was no jersey awarded to the leader in this competition until 1984. The red jersey's points were determined by the first three people who cross the intermediate sprints, in the stage.

Answer: Greg Lemond and Laurent Fignon

Greg LeMond was down 50 seconds from Laurent Fignon, and it was the last stage in the 1989 Tour de France. It just so happened to be an Individual Time Trial; Greg had done really well in all of the time trials in that Tour de France. Greg finished first and had to wait for Laurent to finish. Laurent crossed the line just nine seconds short of winning the 1989 Tour de France.

Answer: Eddy Merckx

Eddy was born on 17 June 1945, in Meensel-Kiezegem, Vlaams Brabant, Belgium. Eddy won the Tour de France five times in his career, along with five Giro d'Italia victories, and one Vuelta a España victory. Eddy won the points classification and the combativity award three times. He also won the King of the Mountains classification two times.

Answer: Fritz Schär

The points classification was introduced in the 1953 Tour de France. Fritz won two stages in the 1953 Tour de France. He placed sixth overall when the 1953 Tour de France concluded. The next year Fritz would place third overall in the points classification.

Answer: Mount Ventoux

Tom was in the sixth place after the first week of racing, in the 1967 Tour de France. He lost time after a stomach bug plagued him. Early on in the stages Tom was seen drinking brandy. Pierre Dumas, the Tour Director at the time, to a walk in the morning saying to his partners "If the riders take something today, we'll have a death on our hands." Sure enough someone, Tom, took amphetamines.

He fell while climbing Mount Ventoux and was pushed by spectators and then fell again, this time he lost consciousness and later died. Tom had died at the age of 29.

Answer: 1926

The 1926 Tour de France was 5,745km long. In the 1926 Tour there were only 17 stages, which meant that the riders would be riding an average of 338km a day. Lucien Buysse won the 1926 Tour de France. Lucien was a Belgian cyclist; this would be his only Tour de France victory.

Answer: Richard Virenque

Richard was born on November 19, 1969, in Casablanca, Morocco. In 1994, Richard won his first of four consecutive King of the Mountains classifications. The other three King of the Mountain wins came in 1999, 2003, and 2004. Richard retired from cycling after the 2004 cycling season.