The world was a much bigger place then. Six weeks by boat to Europe. Even in the 60's and 70"s you could buy a car for what it cost to get to Europe. Now there are 90 or 100 Aussies racing in the US or Europe on sponsored teams.
P-B-P (which was a prestigious as Paris Roubaix at the time), 12th in the Tour and 3rd in Paris -Brussels aren't results to sneeze at, for what, two trips to Europe to race for a few months here or there! Anyway, whose turn is it for the Quiz?

What did the organizers of the TDF eliminate from the race in 1905?

night stages, but they didn't eliminate cheating:

"Cheating still went on, of course. An estimated 125 kilograms(!) of nails were thrown on the road during the first stage, with the result that just 15 riders reached the finish from more than sixty who had started. Initially Desgranges wanted to cancel the whole race; eventually he relented, re-admmitting to the race anyone who had made it to the finish, whether by bike or by train"

Damn, my questions are too easy.

Rockmuncher's up.

EASY: Name the last three riders to win the Flanders-Roubaix double, and the year they did it...

and hurry up, it's four hours past my bedtime!

Boonen, Van Petergem and De Vlaeminck

Years? Ahh, what does it matter. It's nearly half past midnite, time for the folks from the twilight zone to take over....


Classic1, I do believe that it's your serve...

and goodnight all

OOPS! Didn't mean to stop you from getting your beauty sleep. 2005, 2003 and 1977 respectively.

Brill. coz I need it! goodnight and well done

In what years did Davis Phinney win stages in the Tour de France?

86 and 87

Well done Laggard. Sign out time in Oz.

What rider was known as "Lale?"

Laudelino Cubino

Lotek's up.

3 riders get lost during a race yet still
finish in the top 3 positions.
The first of the three was declared the winner,
this was later overturned. The race
had a total of 3 different winners declared.
What race and what year and who was
the finally declared the winner?

I seem to recall something like this happening to Fausto's brother (Sergio?). In that case, it must be late 40's/early 50's. No idea what race.

Sersei Coppi (Fausto's brother) is correct in that he was involved in the
"controversy" Time frame is also correct.
I'll give it a bit more time for others to chime in.

1.5 out of 3 wasn't too bad for a hunch :). Night is upon me so I'll leave the finishing touches to someone else..

Paris Roubaix 1949

The Group or 3 was lead by Andre Mahe. The other 2 were Moujica and Leenen. The eventual result was that Coppi and Mahe were declared co winners as the 3 were mis directed by a race official.

No I did not remember this, I'm just good at looking things up given a starting point.

Keith99,

Good starting point or not, you're up!
(I don't remember this either, before my time!)
what was interesting was that the winner changed
3 times until UCI declared co winners Coppi and Mahe
Marty

The minor awards in big events often get forgotten. The most combative award in the Tour comes to mind. How about combining the most combative with the sprinters Jersey? At least to me it seems quite remarkable that anyone could do this double. After all ride aggressively and if there is a sprint it is likely you won't have the legs to do well. Yet it has been done by at least two riders. (I say at least because it is difficult to even get most combative results and there are a few years I do not have).

Which two riders did this?

One is easy to guess, the other far from obscure.

A followup. The lesser of these two riders also accomplished something (of major note) that no other rider has done. If you get the rider you should get this, or perhaps you can consider it a hint.

JaJa and Virenque?

thats my WAG for this one.

Marty

JaJa is not a bad guess. He did win both awards, but never in the same tour.

I'm at work and very soon have to leave for class which will take me away for about 5 hours. So here is the link to the listing I have of Combativity winners. This way at least someone can check if they are right.

http://www.angelfire.com/realm/cvccb...ombativity.htm

A hint or two.

The easy one to guess had a solo breakaway of about 140 Kms while already in Yellow during the same tour where he won both. (Likely the longest solo break by a contender ever, or at least since WW II. I would be thrilled if anyone knows on this for sure). I'm sure some the regulars on this thread know one of the two now!

The second hint, the accomplishment of the other is one of breadth, e.g. doing several things that make sense as a group, not doing something more times or by a greater margin than anyone else.

Final hint. The easy one to guess came very close to this breadth accomplishment.