Cycling
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230 free Cycling trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free cycling trivia questions with answers. Think you know everything about cycling? Put your knowledge to the test with our comprehensive cycling trivia quiz. From legendary cyclists to bike mechanics and Tour de France history, this quiz covers all aspects of the sport. Challenge yourself and discover how much of a true cycling expert you really are.
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Q 01Which Tour de France climb in Provence is nicknamed the 'Bald Mountain' for its bare limestone summit?
Mont Ventoux
Mont Ventoux, the 'Giant of Provence', looks snow-capped all year because its top is bare rock; Tom Simpson collapsed and died near the summit during the 1967 Tour, and a memorial marks the spot.
Q 02What color jersey is worn by the leader of the general classification in the Giro d'Italia?
Pink
Pink: the maglia rosa, introduced in 1931, matches the pink newsprint of La Gazzetta dello Sport, the newspaper that founded the race.
Q 03What color jersey designates the leader of the general classification in the Vuelta a España?
Red
Red has been the Vuelta leader's colour since 2010, the 'maillot rojo'.
Q 04Which classic one-day cycling race is known as 'The Hell of the North' for its cobbles?
Paris-Roubaix
Paris-Roubaix's brutal stretches of pavé are raced one week after the Tour of Flanders as the final cobbled classic; it is also called 'the Queen of the Classics'.
Q 05What is winning the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France and the world road race title in one year called?
The Triple Crown
The Triple Crown has been won by only three men: Eddy Merckx in 1974, Stephen Roche in 1987 and Tadej Pogačar in 2024, who sealed his by attacking 100 km from the finish at the Zurich worlds.
Q 06Lance Armstrong finally admitted to doping in a 2013 television interview with which host?
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey opened by asking for yes-or-no answers, and Armstrong said yes to each question about drugs, undoing more than a decade of furious denials.
Q 07Which Spaniard won five Tours de France in a row from 1991 to 1995?
Miguel Indurain
Miguel Indurain, 'Big Mig', built every win on his time-trialling and never won a road stage that wasn't against the clock in those five Tours.
Q 08What is the primary purpose of a 'domestique' in professional road cycling?
To work for their team leader
To work for their team leader: shielding them from the wind, fetching bottles, even handing over their own bike after a crash; the word is French for 'servant'.
Q 09What is the term for the main pack of riders in a road bicycle race?
Peloton
Peloton comes from the French for a small ball and a platoon; riders tucked in the middle of the pack feel only a fraction of the wind, which is why group tactics get so complex.
Q 10Which French rider, a five-time Tour de France winner, was nicknamed 'Le Blaireau' (The Badger)?
Bernard Hinault
Bernard Hinault embraced the badger for its aggression, and as the bunch's 'patron' he policed races with the same temperament until his retirement in 1986.
Q 11In cycling, what term describes the crank's rotational speed in revolutions per minute?
Cadence
Cadence: racers often spin at 90 to 100 rpm, because grinding a big gear slowly puts more strain on the muscles and knees than turning an easier gear fast.
Q 12Which bicycle component is made up of the chainrings and the arms that the pedals attach to?
Crankset
Crankset, or chainset in Britain: its left arm takes a reverse-threaded pedal, because the motion of pedalling would work an ordinary thread loose.
Q 13Which bicycle braking system squeezes pads against the wheel itself rather than a rotor or hub?
Rim brake
Rim brake: the wheel doubles as the braking surface, so on a heavily laden bike a long descent can heat the rims enough to blow the tyres off.
Q 21Which German baron built the 1817 'running machine', the first reliable precursor to the bicycle?
Karl Drais
Karl Drais's two-wheeler set off a brief craze, but riders took to the smooth pavements to escape rutted roads, and authorities in Germany, Britain and the United States banned it.
Q 22What is the primary purpose of bicycle clipless pedals?
To prevent feet from slipping off
To prevent feet from slipping off: a cleat on the shoe locks into the pedal, and the 'clipless' name means only that the old toe clips and straps are gone.
Q 23In which track cycling event do two riders start on opposite sides and race a set distance?
Individual Pursuit
Q 14A bicycle designed to be ridden by two people, one behind the other, is commonly known as what?
Tandem
Tandem: in Paralympic racing a visually impaired rider pedals on the rear seat behind a sighted pilot, who does the steering.
Q 15What is a bicycle with no freewheel, whose pedals turn whenever the rear wheel turns, called?
Fixed-gear
Fixed-gear: with no way to coast, the rider can slow the bike just by resisting the pedals, and track racing bikes built this way carry no brakes at all.
Q 16The first Tour de France stage in 1903 ran 467 km from Paris to which city?
Lyon
Lyon: winner Maurice Garin took more than 17 hours over the opening stage, riding through the night; the six-stage loop went on through Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes.
Q 17Which British cyclist has Olympic golds on both the track and the road?
Bradley Wiggins
Bradley Wiggins won the road time trial at the 2012 Games in London, days after winning the Tour de France and ringing the bell that opened the Games; his other four golds came on the track.
Q 18Which one-day race in Italy, held each autumn, is nicknamed the 'Classic of the falling leaves'?
Giro di Lombardia
Giro di Lombardia, the last Monument of the season, is famed for its climb to the Madonna del Ghisallo chapel, whose Madonna Pope Pius XII proclaimed patroness of cyclists in 1949.
Q 19What is a bicycle called whose rider sits low in a chair-like seat, legs stretched out in front?
Recumbent
Recumbent: the reclined rider meets far less wind, and after Francis Faure took the hour record on one in 1933, cycling's governing body barred the design from its events.
Q 20Tadej Pogačar and Primož Roglič, first and second in the 2020 Tour de France, both come from which country?
Slovenia
Slovenia: Roglič led the 2020 Tour for 11 stages until the final time trial, where his 21-year-old countryman overtook him the day before Paris.
Individual Pursuit: the two riders chase each other from opposite sides of the track, and if one catches the other the race is won on the spot.
Q 24What term describes the technique where a cyclist rides closely behind another to reduce air resistance?
Drafting
Drafting, or slipstreaming, leaves the rider in front to take the brunt of the wind; it saves so much effort that it is banned in time trials, where everyone must ride alone.
Q 25Which material are most modern professional road racing frames made from?
Carbon fiber
Carbon fiber is strong only in the direction its fibres run, so builders layer the sheets to make a frame stiff where the power goes and forgiving elsewhere, which metal tubes cannot match.
Q 26What is the padded insert sewn into the seat of cycling shorts called?
Chamois
Chamois: the pad was once real chamois leather, which needed careful washing and treatment to stay soft; modern pads are synthetic, but the name stuck.
Q 27The first Giro d'Italia, in 1909, started and finished in which city?
Milan
Milan: the riders set off from Piazzale Loreto, outside the Gazzetta's offices; the race was scored on points, and on elapsed time the third-placed rider would have beaten the winner by over half an hour.
Q 28Until 1937, how did Tour de France riders change gear for a climb?
Flipped the wheel
Flipped the wheel: riders stopped and turned the rear wheel round to reach a different cog, because the Tour's founder had banned gear changers; his successor allowed them in his first year in charge.
Q 29What are the curled handlebars of a road racing bike, which offer several hand positions, called?
Drop bars
Drop bars: each end curves forwards, down and back toward the rider, so gripping the low section tucks the body out of the wind for fast riding.
Q 30Which Belgian won the 2005 world road race title and the 'Hell of the North' four times?
Tom Boonen
Tom Boonen's fourth Paris-Roubaix, in 2012, matched Roger De Vlaeminck's record, and he won it by riding the last 53 km alone.