Global Gladiators Trivia Quiz

Answer: Slovenia

For a small country, Slovenia certainly has a wealth of cycling talent of which to be proud.

In 2019, Tadej (pronounced Taday) Pogacar burst onto the professional cycling scene like a hurricane. By the time he was 23, this Slovenian 'wunderkind' had two consecutive Tour de France victories under his belt, the first victory coming in his debut appearance at the race in 2020. He promptly followed this up with another win in 2021. In both of these editions of the Tour, he also won the Best Young Rider Classification and the King of the Mountains jersey.

Primoz Roglic came to cycling late after his career as a ski jumper was cut short by a serious injury. Despite this, he has already amassed an impressive palmares of results. He became the first Slovenian to win the Vuelta a Espana in 2019 and followed this with two more victories in 2020 and 2021. He claimed Liege-Bastogne- Liege, one of cycling's five monuments, in 2020. At the Summer Games game in Tokyo held in 2021, he added an Olympic gold medal to his result sheet by winning the Men's Individual Time Trial.

Answer: Colombia

Colombia is a country with a rich cycling history and in Egan Bernal, they finally got the longed-for Tour de France victory when he took the title in the 2019 edition. With this result, he became the first Latin American to win the world's most famous race. In 2021, he followed up this victory with his second grand tour title when he won that year's edition of the Giro d' Italia.

Nairo Quintana is a national hero in his home Colombia because of his cycling exploits. With a palmares almost as big as he is, this diminutive climber excels both in grand tours and shorter stage races. Amongst his victories are the Giro d' Italia in 2014 and the Vuleta a Espana in 2016. He also sports two runner-up spots in the Tour de France, one in 2013 and one in 2016.

Answer: Belgium

Belgium is a hotbed of cycling with a long history of producing outstanding riders including the legendary Eddy Merckx. In Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel this tradition has ably been carried forward to the next generation.

Where to start with Wout van Aert? By the age of 27, he was a three time UCI World Cyclo-Cross Champion winning consecutive titles between 2016 and 2018. He then switched his attention to the road. He has won multiple stages of the Tour de France as well as having both the road race and individual time trial champion of Belgium titles to his credit. His palmares in the one-day classics races is impressive and includes Milan-Sanremo, one of cycling's five monuments, Strade Bianchi and Amstel Gold to name but a few. No wonder his nickname is "Wonderful Wout"

Remco Evenepoel is a precocious talent indeed. In 2018 at the age of 18, he won both the Junior Road Race and the Junior Individual Time Trial titles at the World Championships. The following year he turned professional and it didn't take him long to make his mark winning the Elite Individual Time Trial title at the European Championships. The overall winner of numerous one week stage races then added his first monument to the list by winning the 2022 edition of Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

Answer: Australia

The 'Land Down Under' has produced some great cyclists over the years. In 2022, Jai Hindley joined that list when he won the Giro d' Italia, the first Australian to claim this title. This was a sweet moment for the young man from Western Australia who, in 2019, had entered the final time trial of the same race equal on time with Britain's Teo Geoghegan-Hart, only to see his lead slip away, finally finishing second.

Nicknamed "Bling" for the diamond ear studs he wears, Michael Matthews is one of the most versatile riders in the peloton. In 2010 he won the Under 23 World Road Race title at the World Championships. He is one of the select group of riders who have won stages in all three grand tours. At the 2017 Tour de France, he won the coveted Green Jersey (the Sprinter's Jersey) competition.

Answer: Ecuador

Cycling is fast becoming one of the most popular sports in the South American countryof Ecuador and Richard Carapaz gave his home country its first Giro 'd Italia victory when he won the 2019 edition of the race. In September 2021,in he gave the nation another reason to cheer when he won the gold medal in the Men's Road Race at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. He attacked on the slopes of Mount Fuji and rode away to a solo victory in impressive style.

Jhonaton Narvaez is another Ecuardorian who has made his mark on the professional peloton. In 2020, he took the overall victory in the Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali, a prestigious early season race in Italy. He then followed this up with his first grand tour stage victory when he won stage 12 of the 2020 edition of the Giro d' Italia.

Answer: France

France has a long history of cycling and is, of course, home to the world's biggest race, the Tour de France as well as the Queen of the Classics, Paris Roubaix.

The darling of French cycling fans, Julian Alaphilippe, aka "Lou-Lou", won his second consecutive world title when he triumphed in the Men's Road Race at the World Championships in Leuven, Belgium in 2021 in trademark swashbuckling style. An attacking rider who has endeared himself to cycling fans the world over with his panache, Julian became the first French rider to win more than one world title. He had taken the title previously in 2020 at Imola in Italy.

This diminutive French climber is as good going down mountains as he is climbing them and his daredevil antics on descents are renowned. Romain Bardet claimed the King of the Mountains title in the 2019 Tour De France, much to the delight of the home nation. He has also finished twice on the podium coming second in 2016 and third in 2017. He also has a World Championship silver medal on his palmares when he was runner-up in the Men's Road Race at the World Championships in 2018. He won the prestigious Tour of the Alps in 2022.

Answer: Denmark

Denmark loves its cycling as was envinced by the thousands of people who greeted the Tour de France when it started there in 2022. Two of Danish riders who had the joy of riding the world's biggest race in their home country were Mads Pedersen and Jonas Vingegaard.

Jonas Vingegaard created quite a stir when the youngster from the north of Denmark finished the 2021 Tour de France in second place behind a rampant Tadej Pogacar, giving Denmark their first Tour podium finish in 25 years. The young Danish rider who only joined the World Tour ranks in 2019 used to earn a living by working in a fish packing plant in his native Denmark. On 13 July 2022, he won stage 11 of the 2022 Tour de France taking over the lead and pulling on the yellow jersey; both his first stage win and his first Maillot Jaune.

Mads Pedersen showed his promise at a young age having a stellar junior career which included winning the Paris Roubaix Junior title in 2013. He turned professional in 2017 and, in atrocious weather conditions in Yorkshire, England, in 2019, he gave Denmark its first World Road Race Championship when he took the title at the age of 23.

Answer: Eritrea

Hailing from the cycling mad east African country of Eritrea, Biniam Girmay made cycling history when he won the 10th stage of the 2022 edition of the Giro d' Italia and became the first black African rider to win a stage in any of the three grand tours. Biniam had already created a stir earlier in the season when, at the age of 22, he won Gent-Wevelgem in Belgium and became the first African to win one of the prestigious one day classic races.

Another Eritrean who has made his way into the professional peloton is Henok Mulubran. He became the African champion when he won the title at the African Road Championships held in Egypt in 2022. He was also part of the gold medal winning team in the team trial at the same championships. The 22 year old narrowly missed a hat-trick of golds when he finished second in the individual time trial behind his countryman, Biniam Girmay.

Answer: The Netherlands

At the end of the second stage of the 2021 Tour de France, in his debut year, Mattieu van der Poel pulled on the yellow jersey as the leader of the race. This was a feat that his maternal grandfather, Raymond Poulidor, never managed despite riding the race 14 times, finished second twice and third on three occasions. It was quite an emotional moment for the young Dutch rider. After a stellar career in cyclo-cross which includes multiple world championships titles, Mattieu's switch to the road has followed a similar trend with an impressive palmares including two Tour of Flanders titles in 2020 and 2022 and a leader's pink jersey in the 2022 Giro d'Italia.

When Fabio Jakobsen sprinted to his first Tour de France victory on stage 2 of the 2022 Tour, it sealed a comeback that is a testament to his courage and perseverance that invokes admiration. At the finish of stage 1 of the 2020 Tour of Poland, Fabio was involved in a crash which left him with numerous very serious injuries and, for a few days, his life hung in the balance. Thankfully he survived and began the long and arduous road to recovery. He returned to racing in the latter part of the 2021 season and showed he was not finished yet when he took the points classification at that year's Vuelta a Espana.

Answer: Britain

In 2019, Geraint Thomas was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for his services to cycling in recognition of his achievements both on the track and on the road. On the track he is a three time World Champion (2007, 2008 and 2012)and a double Olympic gold medallist (2008 and 2012) in the team pursuit event representing Great Britain. He has combined his track career with road cycling and in 2018 became the first Welshman to win the Tour de France.

Trying to summarise Mark Cavendish's achievements in a few lines is no easy task. On the track representing Great Britain, he won three World Championship titles in the madison discipline. On the road... at the 2021 Tour De France, Mark did something that had been considered highly unlikely to ever be achieved... he equalled the record of 34 stage wins held by the legendary Eddy Merckx. For a sprinter, this is a phenomenal achievement. No wonder that the director of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme, called him the "greatest sprinter in the history of the Tour". To add to this, he also has victory in the points classification (the sprinter's jersey) in all three grand tours, a Road Race World Championship title and a monument in the form of Milan-Sanremo on his palmares. Phew!