THE NEVERENDING FORUM QUIZZZzzzz

Everything Else
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To counter seasonal forum boredom, I thought I’d recreate here what was by far the most active thread on the forum of a collegiate bike team I was part of in Holland.

The rules :

  1. The quiz consists of a sufficiently bike-related question. Sufficiency is an inherently subjective concept;

  2. Whoever finds the right answer must ask the next question;

  3. Only the person who asked the question can make the final decision as to whether the answer given was right or not;

  4. If a question becomes dormant for two weeks, anyone may ask a new question.

  5. Question must not be answerable within 5 minutes of google searching.

  6. The more imaginative the question, the more fun the quiz.

  7. After a couple wrong answers, hints may be given.

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FIRST QUESTION :

This question is for the roadies / materials geeks à la AJ-Jason_L:

In 1993, Johan Museeuw won the Ronde van Vlaanderen, beating out Frans Maassen. Museeuw seemed unbeatable in the sprint, but Maassen - not a pure sprinter, was nevertheless close. After the ceremonies, an excuse was proffered to explain Maassen’s loss.

What was that excuse?

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  1. it was a short “punchy” sprint, at the disadvantage of Maassen who was more of a diesel sprinter

However Nic, cyclingrevealed disagrees with your analysis: “Johan Museeuw easily sprinted past the Dutchman to win an impressive Ronde van Vlaanderen victory.”
http://www.cyclingrevealed.com/timeline/Race%20Snippets/Flanders/Flan1993.html

If that’s not it, it is clearly because Maassen had a bed Ronde on the night before the Ronde.

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This made me realize that Flemish and Dutch are basically English but with double the letters

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@ mat, no.

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Going on the ‘materials geeks’ hint, I think he blamed his flexing aluminum frame.

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I’m going to have to go with

C) Chain Lube

Final answer

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indeed Pete guessed first hint.

Second hint : watch the final sprint on youtube, you can see it.

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He shifts. Gear issues?

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I’m going to say he didn’t have a long enough sprint. The commentator was saying something like how he liked to go long, but the guy in front kept on making it shorter and shorter when he was looking back. Just my guess

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I concur with Jon, started with too small a gear, had to sit to downshift with less than 100m to go

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mat and john are close

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he blamed his oldfashioned downtube shifters

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My guess: Maassen eased off slightly in an attempt to shift gears and not have the chain skip; however, when he pressed the lever, the derailleur did not shift into a different gear. That brief moment of hesitation cost him the win.

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He got attacked by the evil drivetrain goblin of Flanders

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DavidF wins : indeed Musseuw was running with STI for the first time in 1993 Tour of Flanders.

Your turn to ask the question.

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Because I only know things about road cycling I’m going to have to ask a roadie themed question (sorry, Ben). It took me a while to find something that was not immediately google-able… I hope this falls in between easy—hard

Attached below is an image of a monstrosity of a stem. Who’s bike is it attached to and why is it there? Hint: It’s not for shits and giggles.

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This is for Fabian to ride the trainer after he broke his collarbone at the Ronde 2012

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That was quicker than I hope. Good job! Your turn.

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NEXT QUESTION:

George Hincapie (ambassador of american cycling) is famous for never winning the Queen of the Classics Paris-Roubaix. Many say that if he moved over to the Classic powerhouse Mapei team during his career he would have finally conquered the cobbles, including the Mapei directeur sportif Wilfierd Peeters.

List two reasons why George decided not to make the move.