Tour De France 2007 Trivia Quiz

Answer: London

The Tour is unlikely to start in Rome or Madrid because the race may have to cross the Pyrenees and the Alps to get back into France, which never usually happens until the second week, and the idea of the Tour De France staging a week out of France seems extremely unlikely.

The Tour has started in England twice before, in Devon in 1974 and in Hampshire in 1994. The Devon tour was a complete disaster for the Tour organisers, because the police refused to close the roads for the Tour, and the riders had to cycle up an unsightly bypass that hadn't been opened yet.

The 2007 Prologue was much more of a success, with Fabian Cancellara putting in a blistering performance to take the Maillot Jaune.

Answer: Robbie McEwen

McEwen was involved in a big crash about 20km, but managed to join the peloton and win the stage in the final 20km. Home favourite Mark Cavendish was not so lucky, and finished out of the peloton in a stage he wanted to win. Despite winning the stage and the green jersey temporarily, McEwen was shaken by the crash, and would never win another stage in the 2007 Tour, later finishing outside the time limit in one stage. Cancellara retained the Maillot Jaune, and David Millar took the King of the Mountains jersey after a long breakaway.

Answer: Belgium

The Tour moved to Dunkirk in France before moving into Belgium and finishing in Gand. It was a dream stage for the Belgians, with a one-two finish. Gert Steegmans, Tom Boonen's lead out man, took the stage ahead of Boonen himself, with Filipo Pozzatto third. Boonen then took the green jersey for the points classification.

Answer: 200m

Mathieu Ladagnous was one of the breakaway riders, who ended 11th in the stage because of his involvement in the breakaway. Fabian Cancellara got frustrated in the stage because he didn't feel the peloton were working hard enough to reel in the breakaway. So he attacked himself and forced their hand, causing the peloton to reel the riders in. Cancellara then went on to take his second stage of the Tour ahead of German rider Erik Zabel.

Answer: Alexander Vinokourov

Vino's teammate Andreas Kloden had been involved in an earlier crash but was able to recover and finish in the peloton. Vinokourov wasn't so lucky, and finished one minute and twenty seconds behind the main group, on a hilly stage that also saw Tom Boonen drop back, along with some of the other sprinters who struggled in a difficult stage. Vinokourov's drop also meant that Astana relinquished their place at the head of the Team Classification. Team CSC took their place instead, as Vino called his teammates back to help him out.

Answer: Bradley Wiggins

The British time-trialist was caught within 7km of the finish of the stage in Bourg-en-Bresse, that saw the Belgian sprinter retake the green jersey from the shoulders of Erik Zabel, who had claimed it after Boonen had struggled in Stage 5. Very few riders were dropped from the peloton on this flat stage, which was insignificant when compared with the great mountains looming in the coming days.

Answer: No

Five riders finished clear of the group that contained the main contenders of the Tour, the group including Alejandro Valverde and Frenchman Christophe Moreau, but it was actually a German who won the stage towards the Alps. Young T-Mobile rider Linus Gerdemann won the stage and took the yellow jersey from Cancellara, with the highest placed Frenchman being Laurent Lefevre of the Bougyes Telecom team, in fifth place.

This stage saw the first major changes in the yellow jersey classification, with George Hincapie and David Millar both slipping out of the top ten.

However, there was most definitely more to come from the Alps.

Answer: Australia

The Australian's were hoping for big things in the Tour from T-Mobile rider Michael Rogers, but unfortunately the Australian was involved in a crash that also involved David Arroyo. He appeared to be largely unscathed after the crash, but later pulled out on the side of the road. T-Mobile's British rider Mark Cavendish also pulled out that day.

There was also bad luck for CSC's Stuart O'Grady, who withdrew from the race as well, whilst sprinter Robbie McEwen finished outside the time limit, and as a result was disqualified from the race, along with Danilo Napolitano and Cedric Herve.

The day, however, belonged to Rasmussen and his Rabobank team, who also had Denis Menchov in the top ten at this point, but they had lost Oscar Freire the previous day.

Answer: Christophe Moreau

Moreau didn't finish in the main group in Stage 9, but his presence in the top few places was enough to ensure that he stayed in touch of Michael Rasmussen in the yellow jersey. However, Rasmussen's team-mate Denis Menchov finised over four minutes behind stage winner Juan Mauricio Soler Hernandez, and he slipped to 18th place overall. Vinokourov was even lower in 21st, despite finishing ahead of Menchov, in a group that contained Luxembourg rider Frank Schleck.

Although Schleck wasn't too far behind the main contenders in the overall classification, he was behind team-mate Carlos Sastre, which meant he was destined to play his part in helping Sastre to try and achieve a podium place in Paris.

Answer: Cedric Vasseur

Vasseur was challenged on the line by Sandy Casar, Michael Albasini, Patrice Halgand and Jens Voigt, but he managed to gain yet another stage victory for the Quick-Step team. The five riders were part of an eleven man escape group that involved Juan Antonio Flecha and Andriy Grivko, but six riders were dropped before the end, and the victors finished over 10 minutes ahead of the peloton. None of these were real threats to the overall yellow jersey of Rasmussen's, however, so no real effort was made to reel in the group, and Rasmussen held on to the jersey.

Answer: Christophe Moreau

Moreau unfortunately found himself in the wrong half of the peloton that was split by the actions of Vinokourov's Astana team, out for revenge on those who didn't help him when he picked up an injury in one stage. Another man who was caught out was German sprinter Erik Zabel, one of Boonen's closest challengers to the green jersey, so Boonen would remain safe for another day at least. Robbie Hunter moved up to second in this competition, after a stage victory, just edging out Cancellara.

Despite the actions of Astana, Moreau still remained ahead of Vinokourov in the overall classification.

Answer: Tom Boonen

Robbie Hunter was largely able to win on stage 11 because of a crash that put Boonen out of contention for the stage. Stung, Boonen went on to take the stage the following day despite much competition from the likes of Erik Zabel and Thor Hushovd for the stage. Zabel finished second, Hunter third and Daniel Bennati came fourth in a stage focused around the green jersey competition rather than the Maillot Jaune. American rider David Zabriskie didn't start this stage because he finished outside the time limit in the last stage, and so was disqualified, which was a sad end to a Tour that promised a lot for the American who had impressed in the Dauphine Libere earlier in the year.

Answer: Alexander Vinokourov

The Kazakh rider was certainly taking most of the headlines in this years Tour, even if he wasn't at his best, but no one could compete with Vino today. He finished over a minute ahead of Cadel Evans and Andreas Kloden. Wiggins was back in fifth place, Menchov down in 21st and Moreau failed to finish inside the top 100, which meant his aim of finishing as the top Frenchman looked under threat, although there were no obvious contenders who were French.

Answer: Michael Rasmussen

Despite being a climber rather than a time trial specialist, Rasmussen put in a very good performance to hold on to his jersey, a minute ahead of Evans in the overall classification. He would certainly need to attack in the Pyrenees coming up if he was to stand any chance of retaining the Maillot Jaune in Paris.

He finished 11th in the Albi time trial, behind the contenders such as Evans, Contador, Kloden and Levi Leipheimer, but nevertheless it was one of his most assured performances in a Tour De France time trial.

He was still the holder of the King of the Mountains jersey as well.

Answer: Iban Mayo

Although Valverde and Pereiro finished behind the stage winner Contador, they weren't far enough behind to be out of contention just yet. Mayo, on the other hand, was significantly further behind and found himself 15 minutes behind Michael Rasmussen in the race for the yellow jersey. Rasmussen and Contador both finished with the same time ahead of Soler Hernandez of the Barloworld team, and they both gained crucial time over Cadel Evans, who finished about a minute behind Leipheimer and Sastre, with Andreas Kloden. Kloden's teammate, Vinokourov, had a disasterous stage, finishing 29 minutes behind.

Answer: Astana

Vinokourov's Astana team moved into the lead in the team classification after the 2006 Vuelta winner Vino won the stage to gain back a little pride. He was in a breakaway that saw Kim Kirchen of T-Mobile second and Haimar Zubeldia of Euskatel-Euskadi third. Menchov was also in the breakaway, but finised six minutes behind the main contenders after being caught.

His Tour was well and truly over at this stage, and he was soon to be followed by more unfortunate riders. For now, Vino moved up to 23rd, 28 minutes behind Rasmussen in the standings.

Answer: Rider and team had pulled out of the Tour

Alexander Vinokourov once again made the headlines as he tested positive for a blood transfusion from the time trial in Albi, and his team pulled out in protest. Two of his team members, Andreas Kloden and Andrey Kashchekin, were 5th and 7th at the time, so this was a bold move on their part.

There was also a protest at the start of the stage, as riders protested against the laxity of officials when concerning drugs testing, which was a change from previous years, as riders often protested in the interests of fellow riders. Eventually, the riders who protested caught the riders that didn't, and Michael Rasmussen went on to win the stage after holding off more attacks from Alberto Contador.

However, he lost his King of the Mountain's jersey to Juan Mauricio Soler Hernandez.

Answer: Michael Rasmussen

As well as the withdrawal of Denis Menchov that day, Rabobank pulled Rasmussen out of the race because of some problems with not declaring his whereabouts for drug testing. Although there had been complaints about the Danish climber for a while, it was a shock for the Maillot Jaune to be withdrawn at this point in the race. Alberto Contador took the race lead, and even he was involved in last year's big scandal, Operacion Puerto, although he was later cleared.

Answer: Cofidis

Italian rider Cristian Moreni tested positive in the last few days of the Tour, meaning that the remaining members of the Cofidis squad pulled out in protest. In reality, this wasn't really big news, as Cofidis didn't have any riders who were threatening to win any of the major jerseys, and the news came out just as Rabobank had withdrawn Rasmussen, so all the attention was on that move.

The two flat stages in between the mountains and the time-trial were won by Daniele Bennati and Sandy Casar. Both involved breakaways, and Tom Boonen kept his green jersey.

Answer: Levi Leipheimer

Leipheimer had never won a stage in the Tour De France in his career, but he put in a blistering time trial to convincingly win the time trial. Cadel Evans finished second, with Vladimir Karpets down in third. Despite winning the stage, Leipheimer was still 9 seconds behind Cadel Evans overall, meaning the Australian would take second place and Leipheimer was destined to finish third.

However, Contador had won the Tour with a very respectable 5th place in the time trial, remaining clear of Evans by just 23 seconds, the second closest winning margin.

Answer: Paris

The answer is, of course, in the capital city Paris. The Tour has finished along the Champs-Elysses in Paris since 1975. Prior to then, the finish was in a different part of Paris. This year saw Daniele Bennati win his second stage of the Tour, as Alberto Contador became the first Spanish winner of the Tour since Miguel Indurain, although Oscar Pereiro may still be awarded the 2006 Tour. Contador is one of the youngest winners of the Tour, and definitely shows a lot of promise for the future.

Answer: Tom Boonen

Belgian sprinter Tom Boonen held on to the green jersey under pressure from Erik Zabel and Robert Hunter. McEwen was eliminated by this point, but had already won three green jerseys in his career, including the 2006 one. Hushovd won at the Champs-Elysses last year, of course, and won the green jersey a year earlier, but the Norweigan sprinter finished this year without a stage win, which is rare for a talented sprinter such as Hushovd. Zabel has won six green jersey's in the Tour, which is still a record, but young Belgian Boonen won his first green jersey.

Answer: Juan Mauricio Soler Hernandez

The impressive Colombian climber from Team Barloworld became the third Colombian winner of the polka dot jersey for being the King of the Mountains, with Luis Herrera and Santiago Botero preceding him. In reality, because of Michael Rasmussen's withdrawal, the Colombian had no serious rival to the jersey. Soler Hernandez impressed in the Tour, finishing just outside the top 10, and also finishing second in the Young Rider's classification, behind Alberto Contador.

Answer: Discovery Channel

Despite Lance Armstrong dominating the Tour in recent years, Discovery hadn't won the prize for Best Team before in the Tour. T-Mobile had won it a few times, but weren't in the races this time, after the withdrawals of riders such as Patrick Sinkewitz and Michael Rogers. CSC had finished third after a fourth place finish from Carlos Sastre and a 17th from Frank Schleck. Caisse D'Epargne were almost as impressive as Discovery, finishing second with Valverde in sixth, Pereiro in tenth and Arroyo and Karpets also in the top twenty. Discovery had Contador, Leipheimer and Popovych (8th) in the top ten.

Answer: Amets Txurruka

Txurruka won the award that the likes of Richard Virenque, Bernard Hinault and Eddy Merckx have won in the past. He was nominated on Stage 12 after a breakaway attempt that was caught just 1km from the finish line, and he also tried to participate in other breakaways as well. Stephane Auge was the first rider to be nominated, but since his team pulled out, he couldn't win the prize. Popovych and Millar arguably deserved to win the prize, as both were involved in a lot of breakaways, but Millar wasn't even given an award for combativity in a stage, which was quite unfair.