Naming famous Belgians is a pub quiz staple, but for cycling fans, there is a more intriguing piece of trivia. Your starter for 10 – name the last time a Belgian stood on the Tour de France’s finish podium in Paris. The wording is critical, but the question remains a massive one for the country that produced Eddy Merckx, whose achievements were thrown into the spotlight this past week for the umpteenth time.
The last Belgian to win the Tour remains the curly haired diminutive climber Lucien Van Impe, who is also the last to stand on the podium in Paris; incredibly for a nation of Belgium’s cycling stature, that was in 1981. One Belgian has figured in the top three since then, and here is the trivia twist: the now forgotten Jurgen Van den Broeck, a gangling time-trial specialist, never got on the podium, but was awarded third long after the 2010 race, when Alberto Contador and Denis Menchov were disqualified for doping offences.
