Fastest of the Fast Trivia Quiz

Answer: Erik Zabel

Erik Zabel won six consecutive Green Jersey competitions between 1996 and 2001. The 2001 competition was particularly hard fought, with Zabel snatching the jersey from the Australian, Stuart O'Grady, on the final stage on the Champs Elysee. The final points tally was 252 to 244.
Born in East Berlin in 1970, Erik Zabel has over 200 professional victories to his name including three consecutive points classification Blue Jerseys in the Vuelta a Espana from 2002 to 2004. He is now retired, with the 2008 Paris Tours being his final road race which was particularly fitting as the 1994 version was the first major classic he won as a professional.
Eddy Merckx, known as The Cannibal from his desire to win, is arguably the greatest rider the peloton has ever seen, counting five Tour de France, five Giro d'Italia and one Vuelta a Espana crowns among his victories. He won a total of three Green Jerseys in 1969, 1971 and 1972. In the 1969 Tour he became the only man to win the Yellow, Green and Polka Dot Jerseys in one year.
Belgian Freddy Maertens won three Green Jerseys in 1976, 1978 and 1981. His 1976 campaign included a record equalling eight stage wins.
Irishman Sean Kelly, a protege of Maertens, won four Green Jerseys between 1982 and 1989. He was the first rider to be ranked No. 1 in the world when the FICP introduced the World Rankings in 1984, a position he held for over six years.

Answer: He threw his water bottle at a fellow rider at the finish line.

Tom Steels was disqualified for "violent behaviour towards others" after he threw his water bottle at Frenchman Frederic Moncassin at the finish, claiming that Moncassin had dangerously cut in front of him during the sprint. Tom Steels won four stages of the Tour the next year. He is a four time Belgian National Road Race Champion. He retired from professional cycling at the end of the 2008 season.
Stage 6 of the 1997 Tour was also noteworthy for the disqualification of Djamolodine Abdoujaparov for failing a dope test after the second stage as well as for the relegation of Eric Zabel from first to last place for "dangerous tactics" which effectively cost him the Green Jersey title that year.
The last two alternative transgressions do happen within the peloton but did not play a part in this stage of the Tour.

Answer: Djamolodine Abdoujaparov

Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, the diminutive "Abdou" was known as "The Tashkent Terror" for his ferocity in sprint finishes. He won the Green Jersey competition in 1991, despite crashing with about 100 metres to go of the final stage on the Champs Elysee after he collided with a promotional drinks can. He was assisted back onto his bike and, accompanied by medical staff, finished the stage. Together with Eddy Merckx and Laurent Jalabert, he is only rider to have won the Points Classification in all three Grand Tours. His career ended with a failed drugs test in the 1997 Tour.
Pior Wadecki is a former Polish National Champion in both the Road Race and Time Trial who road the Tour in 2001 and 2002.
Andrei Kivilev was a Kazakstani rider who died on March 12 2003 following a fall in the second stage of the Paris-Nice Race. His death prompted the compulsory wearing of helmets in all UCI sanctioned races.
Laszlo Bodrogi is a former Hungarian National Champion in both the Road Race and the Time Trial. A time trial specialist, he won the silver medal at the UCI World Championships Time Trials in 2007.

Answer: Laurent Jalabert

The darling of the French crowd, "Jaja" as he is affectionately known, won the Green Jersey competition in 1992 and 1995 and then went on to win the back to back King of the Mountains classifications in 2001 and 2002. To add to this, he was also desginated the "Most Combative Rider" in the Tour in 2001 and 2002. One of only three men to have won the Points Classification in all three Grand Tours, winning in both the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana in 1995, he was also the World Time Trial Champion in 1997. Now retired, "Jaja" commentates for French television and participates in triathlons.
Five time winner of the Tour in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1985, "The Badger" as Hinault is known, also won the King of the Mountains Polka Dot Jersey in 1986 but never won the Green Jersey competition.
Italian Claudio Chiapucci won back to back King of the Mountains in 1991 and 1992 but the highest position he achieved in the Green Jersey was third in 1992 behind Jalabert and Johan Musseuw.
The winner of an unprecedented seven consecutive Tours between 1999 and 2005, Lance Armstrong never won either the Green or Polka Dot Jersey Competitions, preferring to focus, to great success, on the "Maillot Jaune".

Answer: He became the first rider to abandon thirteen consecutive Tours.

On Stage 9 of the 2004 Tour from St Leonard de Moblat to Gueret, Jaan Kirsipuu became the first and, to date, only rider to drop out of thirteen consecutive Tours. A great sprinter on the flat stages but who had a violent dislike of anything that went uphill, Kirsipuu won four stages of the Tour between 1999 and 2002 despite never finishing a single Tour. In the 1999 Tour he wore the Yellow Jersey for six days, the only man other than Lance Armstrong to wear it that year.
The only two cyclists from the former Soviet Bloc to win a Green Jersey competition are Eric Zabel, who hails from the former East Germany and Djamolodine Abdoujaparaov from Uzekbekistan.
Broken collarbones are one of the most common injuries found amongst cyclists.
The "Lanterne Rouge" is the title given to the rider who finishes in last place in a Tour. It is quite a sought after title as the holder is usually invited to the lucrative post Tour criterium races.

Answer: Mario Cipollini

Super Mario, The Lion King, Cipo; call him what you will, Mario Cipollini was one of the best sprinters of all time. A flamboyant Italian with a penchant for outlandish outfits (in 1997 he was fined by the Tour commissars for wearing an all yellow outfit while leading the race), Mario won stages four to seven in 1999 setting a post World War II record and equalling that set by Charles Pellisier in 1930. In the same tour, he set a record average speed of 50.355 kmp ( 31.29mph) for stage four from Laval to Blois. Despite never finishing a tour, he won twelve stages of the Tour. His famous "Red Train of Saeco" changed the face of sprinting forever.
Jan Svorada, now retired, was a sprinter from the Czech Republic who won three stages of the Tour between 1994 and 2001. He was the National Road Race Champion of his country on three occasions.
Ale-Jet, the nickname given to Italian Alessandro Petacchi, was touted as the natural successor to Cipollini and has won stages in all three grand Tours including four in the 2003 Tour.
Guiseppe Guerini is an Italian rider who has two stage wins in the Tour, coming in 1999 and 2005. He is probably best remembered for the 1999 stage on Alpe d'Huez where he won despite crashing into a German photographer who stepped in front on him near the finish line to take a photograph.

Answer: Robbie McEwen

Nicknamed "The Pocket Rocket", Robbie McEwen became the first Australian to win the Green Jersey competition and has, subsequently, captured it on two other occasions, namely 2004 and 2006; his 2005 bid was derailed after he was relegated in stage three by referees for his clash with fellow Australian, Stuart O'Grady, in the final sprint. He won twelve stages each of the Tour and the Giro d'Italia and has twice been the Australian Road Race Champion.
Stuart O'Grady has never won the Green Jersey competition despite finishing second four times namely in 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2005, coming closest in 2001 where he lost the jersey to Eric Zabel on the final stage. He has won two stages of the Tour and has worn the "Maillot Jaune" twice, once in 1999 and again in 2001.
On the final stage of the 2003 Tour, Baden Cooke won the Green Jesery competition by two points from Robbie McEwen as well as wearing the White Jersey for the Best Young Rider for two days.
Bradley McGee won the Prologue of the 2003 Tour as well as wearing the "Maillot Jaune" for three days. His was the first Australian to wear the leader's jersey in all three Grand Tours.

Answer: He was not invited to participate as he had tested positive for cocaine.

The golden boy of Belgian cycling, "Tornado Tom" Boonen tested positive for cocaine in a test held on 26 May 2008. As the test was conducted out-of-competition, Boonen did not face official sanctions but was declared "persona non grata" by the ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation), the organisers of the Tour. A gifted sprinter, Boonen won the Green Jersey competition in 2007 during which Tour he also wore the "Maillot Jaune" for four stages. He was the 2005 World Road Race Champion and is a three times winner of Paris Roubaix amongst other victories.
The unfortunate distinction of crashing his car belongs to Jan Ullrich, a former winner of the Tour from Germany, who drove his Porsche 911 into a row of parked bicycles outside a nightclub in Freiburg while under the influence of alcohol in May 2002, the result of which he did not start the Tour that year.
The Italian rider, Damiano Cunego, who won the 2004 Giro d'Italia, did not perform well when defending his title the following year and was found to be suffering from the Epstein-Barr virus which kept him out of the 2005 Tour.
Crashes are an occupational hazard for professional cyclists so this could have been a plausible reason for Boonen's non-start as there is only usually a period of about a month between the end of the Giro and the start of the Tour.

Answer: Thor Hushovd

Thor Hushovd, the powerfully built sprinter who is variously nicknamed "The God of Thunder", "The Bear/Bull of Grimstad" or, my personal favourite, "Thunder Thighs Thor", was the first Norwegian to win the Green Jersey when he took the competition in 2005. He was also the first Norwegian to wear the "Maillot Jaune" and was the World Road Race Champion in 1998.In 2004,he held both the Norwegian Road Race and Time Trial titles. His father, Per, and his mother, Unni, followed him round France in a camper van; in an interview with Cyclingnews, Thor revealed that his mom provided him with his favourite meal "Kjottkaker" - meatballs made with fried onions and potato flour.
No American has ever won the Green Jersey competition and, while Tyler Hamilton did not bring his mother with him, he was accompanied on many occasions by his beloved dog, Tugboat. It is widely believed that Tugboat's death during the 2004 Tour was the final straw that caused the injured Hamilton to abandon the race.
Similarly, no rider from the United Kingdom has won a Green Jersey competition. David Millar is primarily a time trial specialist and won three stages of the Tour in 2000, 2001 (where he won the final individual time trial) and 2003. In 2004 he was convicted of doping offences and served a two year ban returning to the peloton just before the 2006 Tour.
In 2008, Oscar Freire became the first Spanish rider to win a Green Jersey competition. This three time World Road Race Champion, has four stage wins in the Tour to his credit.

Answer: Robert Hunter

Robert (Robbie) Hunter was the first South African to participate in a Tour when he started the Tour in 2001. In 2006, Robbie was disqualified in the penultimate stage, an individual time trial, for being outside the time limit. It later emerged that he had ridden the whole course while standing in the pedals as he had such severe saddle sores he could not sit down. In 2007, riding for the Barloworld team who had been awarded a wild card invitation to the Tour, Robbie not only won stage eleven but finished a close second to Tom Boonen in the Green Jersey competition.
In 2008 John-Lee Augustyn became the second South African to start a Tour de France. He finished seventh in both the King of the Mountains and the White Jersey for the Best Young Rider competition.
Daryl Impey is another of the young South Africans riding for Barloworld and, in 2009 won the Presidential Tour of Turkey.
Arran Brown is a rising star of South African cycling. This talented young sprinter beat Robert Hunter to take the 2009 Cape Argus Cycle Tour.