Battle of the Broadcasters: We test BBC's Simon Brotherton & ITV's Ned Boulting in cycling quiz

At the Tour of Britain 2014 launch on Monday evening at Canary Wharf in London's Docklands, we bumped into the BBC’s Simon Brotherton and Ned Boulting from ITV having a chat. What better than to ambush them with an impromptu cycling quiz?

Well, quite a few things on reflection. But the pair, who between them have covered 31 editions of the Tour de France - Brotherton since 1994, Boulting since 2003 - were great sports. Here’s how it went.

Q1 – Which year was the Festina Tour?

Ned is straight in there with the correct answer, 1998 and takes an early lead in the evening’s impromptu competition.

Q2 – How many gold medals did Team GB win in all disciplines at London 2012? 

A very confident “8” from both, with Simon – who commentated on the whole shebang – just getting in there first.

One-all.

Q3 – Who won the 2007 Tour de France Prologue in London?

Simon is in straight away with Fabian Cancellara. Two-one to the BBC.

Q4 – The day after the 2014 edition of the race, we ask who is the only British rider to have won Gent-Wevelgem?

Advantage Simon as he supplies the answer quick as a flash – Barry Hoban. The BBC man is three–one up with three questions to go; if this were your football team in a penalty shootout, you’d be feeling confident. Well… unless you support England and you’re up against Germany,...

Q5 – Which team was Ben Swift riding for when he won a Tour of Britain stage in 2009?

Before we finish asking the question, Ned’s in there with the answer, and it’s correct, Katusha – no need to do a Jeremy Paxman and dock him five points for interrupting incorrectly as he pulls one back.

Q6 – When was the last year there was an individual time trial on the last day of the Tour of Britain?

The answers come in unison – 2011 – so that's a point halved, and just one more question to come...

Q7 – And who won it?

After a slight bit of confusion – not least on the part of the question master, ahem – it was of course Alex Dowsett, then with Team Sky, who took the stage.

Ned gets the answer, and so he should have – he rode the IG Gentleman’s Time Trial the same day, partnering Maurice Burton. And in giving the correct answer, he clinches a draw.

The verdict?

Honours shared between the Beeb and ITV presenters.

Huge thanks to Ned Boulting and Simon Brotherton for entering into the spirit of the quiz with no notice.

We may need to knit two yellow jumpers, or at least one that is big enough for them to share.

Would you have got all seven correct? Why not set your own quiz in the comments below?