Tour de France Trivia
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47 free Tour De France trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
50 free Tour de France trivia questions with answers. The Tour de France has been ridden almost every July since 1903, and this quiz covers the whole story. Fifty questions run from the newspaper crisis meeting that invented the race, through the yellow, green, polka dot and white jerseys and what each one means, to the five-time winners, the record-breaking sprinters, the stripped Armstrong titles, the legendary climbs of Alpe d'Huez, Mont Ventoux, the Tourmalet and the Galibier, the Champs-Élysées finish, the wartime gaps and the new Tour de France Femmes. Easy questions ask which jersey the sprinters chase and what the last-placed rider is called; the hard ones want the fewest finishers ever, the odd first prize of the 1970s and the chocolate brand behind the spots. It suits anyone who watches three weeks of racing every summer or just wants to sound clever at the pub during it. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the race, its classifications, its climbs and its riders, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which newspaper created the Tour de France in 1903 to boost its sales?
L'Auto
L'Auto: the race sent its sales soaring, and rival Le Vélo, the country's biggest sports daily, went out of business.
Q 02Which yellow-jersey wearer ran up a mountain on foot in 2016 after crashing into a motorbike?
Froome
Froome: the race jury then awarded him the same time as a rider caught up in the same crash, so he kept yellow.
Q 03The green jersey is awarded to the leader of which competition?
Points classification
Points classification: it was launched in 1953 to mark the Tour's 50th anniversary, and it rewards high stage finishes, which is why sprinters chase it.
Q 04Which jersey is worn by the leader of the mountains classification?
Polka dot
Polka dot: the jersey arrived in 1975, and its first wearer, Joop Zoetemelk, never went on to win the mountains title at the Tour.
Q 05What colour jersey goes to the best-placed rider aged under 26?
White
White: in 2020 Tadej Pogačar won it, and on the penultimate day he overturned his deficit in a time trial to take the yellow jersey too.
Q 06Who was the first rider to win the Tour de France five times?
Jacques Anquetil
Jacques Anquetil: before the 1961 Tour he vowed to take the yellow jersey on day one and keep it all the way to Paris, and he did.
Q 07Which rider won five Tours de France in a row, from 1991 to 1995?
Miguel Induráin
Miguel Induráin: he hammered his rivals in the time trials and simply contained them in the mountains.
Q 08Which Frenchman won his fifth Tour de France title in 1985?
Bernard Hinault
Bernard Hinault: a crash on stage 14 broke his nose, yet he held on to win in Paris.
Q 09What nickname did Eddy Merckx earn for refusing to let anyone else win?
The Cannibal
The Cannibal: chasing a sixth Tour win in 1975, he broke his cheekbone in a crash, yet rode on to finish second.
Q 10Which American was stripped of seven straight Tour titles in 2012?
Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong: the ruling that erased all his results since August 1998 also banned him from the sport for life.
Q 11Tadej Pogačar's 2020 win at 21 made him the second-youngest champion, behind which 1904 winner?
Henri Cornet
Henri Cornet: he finished fifth on the road, but the first four were disqualified for cheating and he was handed the title months later.
Q 12Before Pogačar in 2024, who was the last rider to win the Giro and the Tour in one year, in 1998?
Marco Pantani
Marco Pantani: a year later he was thrown out of the Giro while leading it, after a blood test showed his haematocrit above the limit.
Q 13Which Tour de France champion worked early-morning shifts handling fish before turning pro?
Jonas Vingegaard
Q 21Until 1967, which Paris venue hosted the Tour de France finish?
Parc des Princes
Parc des Princes: the very first finish in 1903 was timed outside Paris, and the riders then rode laps of honour on its track.
Q 22Which city hosted the first Grand Départ outside France, in 1954?
Amsterdam
Amsterdam: that year's race had no Italian team at all, because Italy's cycling federation refused to send one.
Q 23On which mountain did British rider Tom Simpson collapse and die during the 1967 Tour?
Mont Ventoux
Mont Ventoux: amphetamines and alcohol, combined with the heat and the hard climb, are thought to have caused his collapse.
Jonas Vingegaard: the shifts ran until around midday, so his bike training had to wait for the afternoons.
Q 14Which rider lost the 1989 Tour by just 8 seconds?
Laurent Fignon
Laurent Fignon: his rival won the closing time trial into Paris on triathlon-style aero bars, snatching the title on the final day.
Q 15Who in 1986 became the first non-European to win the men's Tour de France?
Greg LeMond
Greg LeMond: the next year he was accidentally shot while hunting and missed two Tours, then came back to win twice more.
Q 16Which sprinter broke Eddy Merckx's long-standing record with a 35th Tour stage win in 2024?
Mark Cavendish
Mark Cavendish: 2023 was meant to be his final season, but he put off retiring for one more year to chase the outright record.
Q 17Which rider won a record seven green jerseys between 2012 and 2019?
Peter Sagan
Peter Sagan: the one year he missed in that run, 2017, officials disqualified him for causing a crash in a sprint finish.
Q 18Which French climber won the King of the Mountains title a record seven times, the last in 2004?
Richard Virenque
Richard Virenque: in that 2004 race he also won the Bastille Day stage with a solo attack, finishing more than five minutes clear.
Q 19Which Paris avenue has hosted the Tour's finale almost every year since 1975?
Champs-Élysées
Champs-Élysées: the first finish there, in 1975, also ended Eddy Merckx's winning run, as a Frenchman rode into Paris in yellow.
Q 20Because Paris was preparing to host the Olympics, which city staged the 2024 finish?
Nice
Nice: Tadej Pogačar sealed his third Tour there by winning the closing time trial from Monaco, his sixth stage win of that race.
Q 24The Tour's 21-hairpin climb to Alpe d'Huez ends at what kind of place?
A ski resort
A ski resort: its hotel owners brought the Tour up there in 1952, and their leader lured the race back in 1976.
Q 25Who won the first ever stage finish at Alpe d'Huez, in 1952?
Fausto Coppi
Fausto Coppi: he dominated that Tour so completely that organisers doubled the prize money for second place to keep the race alive.
Q 26Because their riders won there so often, which nation's fans pack Alpe d'Huez when the Tour visits?
The Dutch
The Dutch: every year, people also ride up it in Alpe d'HuZes, a Dutch event that raises money for cancer research.
Q 27Which pass has featured in more Tours de France than any other, as of 2025?
Col du Tourmalet
Col du Tourmalet: in 1913 the virtual race leader broke his fork on it and had to carry his bike down to a village forge to mend it himself.
Q 28The Tour's first high-mountain stages, in 1910, took the race through which range?
The Pyrenees
The Pyrenees: even that year's winner, Octave Lapize, had to get off and walk up the climbs.
Q 29Which Alpine pass has a memorial to the Tour's founder beside its summit tunnel?
Col du Galibier
Col du Galibier: when the Tour first crossed it, stage winner Émile Georget was one of the few riders who never got off to walk.
Q 30Who was the founding director of the Tour de France, running it for more than three decades?
Henri Desgrange
Henri Desgrange: he kept multiple gears out of the race for years, and in 1930 made every rider use a plain yellow bike he supplied.