Tour de France: Cycling in the Time of Covid Quiz

Answer: Miguel Angel Lopez

Despite an unofficial agreement in the peloton to slow the tempo on the dangerous descent, Astana accelerated with Omar Fraile in the lead. It appeared that the rear wheel of Lopez locked when rounding a corner causing the skid. Apparently unharmed, he borrowed a teammate's bike and finished the remaining 50k in the peloton.

Answer: Julian Alaphilippe

The three man break-a-way of Alaphilippe, Hershi and Yates held off the peloton and set themselves up for a sprint finish. With 13k to go, Alaphilippe made his move and was first across the line on the Promenade des Anglais. He dedicated his win to his father who had passed away in June.

Answer: Alaphilippe received a time penalty for taking a water bottle 17k from the finish line

As a safety measure regulations prohibited the taking of food or water within 20k of the finish line. Alaphilippe made a costly error by taking a water bottle too near the finish. He was penalized 20 seconds and that time loss meant Yates now had ownership of the yellow jersey. The following day the prohibited zone was changed from 20k to 15k from the finish line.

Answer: Primoz Roglic

Stage 9 was a great day for Slovene cycling. Both Pogacar and Roglic lead the field and summited the Col de Marie-Blanque together. But at the final sprint for the line it was 21 year old Pogacar who took yellow for the stage win. His countryman, Roglic, took the leader's yellow jersey from Yates. Pogacar was in his first Tour de France making his win over veteran G.C. riders all the more impressive.

A star was born!

Answer: Sam Bennett

Irish cyclist Sam Bennett launched a blazing sprint beating out Peter Sagan and Caleb Ewan to take the stage and the green jersey. With the victory Bennett lead Sagan 196 to 175 points. Sagan's fortunes would take another hit on the following stage when he would be relegated to the back of the peloton, fined, and penalized 13 points in the sprint classification for using his head and shoulders to move Wout van Aert to the left to create an opening for himself on the sprint to the line.

Answer: Marc Hirschi

Sunweb cyclist Marc Hirschi became the first Swiss cyclist to win a Tour de France stage in since 2012. In earlier stages he had crossed the line in second and third place and he appeared determined to ensure he was first across the line in the race's longest stage. He launched a 28k solo break from Suc au May and no one was able to follow him as he powered to victory.

Answer: Egan Bernal

Defending Tour de France champion Egan Bernal, captain of Ineos Grenadiers was dropped 13k from the finish at the top of Colombier. The unraveling of the Ineos Grenadiers on the iconic climb cost Bernal an insurmountable 7 minutes loss on Stage 15. Bernal would later abandon the race.

Answer: Geraint Thomas & Chris Froome

Both Froome and Thomas were deemed to have shown poor form in the Criterium du Dauphine 2020. Although Thomas assured team management he would ride the Tour in support of Egan Bernal, he was nevertheless assigned to ride the 2020 Giro d'Italia and Froome was assigned to the 2020 Vuelta a España.

After Bernal's chance for a win collapsed on the climb to Col du Grand Colombier, where he dropped from 3rd place to 13th, there was criticism that the Ineos team would have profited from having had the two past Tour winners on the squad.

Answer: Michal Kwiatkowski & Richard Carapaz

A day after their leader and defending champion Egan Bernal withdrew from the race, Ineos Grenadiers teammates Michal Kwiatkowski and Richard Carapaz embraced as they crossed the 18th stage finish line in a virtual dead heat. Longtime fans were happy Kwiatkowski, the veteran hard working domestique, was awarded the win for crossing a hair's breath ahead of Carapaz. The dynamic duo rescued an otherwise abysmal Tour de France for the Ineos Grenadiers.

Answer: Tadej Pogacar

With only the Individual Time Trial remaining, it seemed assured that Primoz Roglic would be the winner of the 2020 Tour de France. But the time trial is called the Ride of Truth for good reason ... it is man and machine against the clock. An uphill time trial on La Planche des Belles Filles proved to be the downfall of the assumed winner when Pogacar, in a breathtaking TT, turned a deficit of 57 seconds to a into a 59 second margin of victory over his fellow Slovene.

It does not get more exciting than that!