By Dave Campbell — Looking back at a Remarkable Year of World Cycling including some significant American performances…
Q1. The last time an American woman won the World Road Cycling Championships was 1980 when Beth Heiden triumphed in Sallanches, France. But our riders have collected many runner-up positions! Chloe Dygert’s Silver medal finish was amazingly the sixth Silver Medal won by American women since Heiden’s triumph. Can you name our other road silver medalists since 1980?
Q2. American Neilson Powless won the 108th edition of the Giro del Piemonte this past fall, the first victory by a Yank in the Italian semi-classic. What was the previous best finish by an American rider in this event?
Q3. Another American first in 2024 was the victory by Matteo Jorgenson of Boise, Idaho in the Belgian spring semi-classic Dwars door Vlaanderen. What was the previous best result by an American?
Q4. Slovenian Tadej Pogačar joined an elite club this past season by winning the “Triple Crown” of the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France, and the World Road Championship. Only Belgian Eddy Merckx (1974) and Irishman Stephen Roche (1987) had done this previously. Riders of the 1970s and 1980s raced many more days than those of the modern era. But how did the rest of Tadej’s season compare to Roche and Merckx in terms of wins in other major races? Which of the three riders claimed the most wins (excluding criteriums) during their Triple Crown season?
Q5. Mathieu Van der Poel became the eleventh rider in history to complete “the cobbled double” of winning the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in the same season. These spring classics are two of the five monuments in cycling and occur on consecutive weekends, first in Belgium then in France, and despite the cobbled similarity, the terrain and stones are actually quite different. The first was Henri Suter of Switzerland in 1923. Excepting Van der Poel can you name the other nine? Hint: The great Eddy Merckx never achieved it, and two riders did it twice.
Bonus Question: Van der Poel did the double in the Rainbow Jersey! Did anyone else accomplish that?
Answers on next page.
