Retropédalage is a self-published French game about the history (past and future!) of cycling, described on its website as a card game, though I have been tempted to add it to the quiz-games category (I am not; I have placed it in the non-race games instead). The game consists of 50 illustrated event cards, 24 mission cards, game rules, and a box to store everything. The box you see in the picture above (a recycled VHS box, actually) is the second version. Quentin told me that the first version was a recycled tetrabrik pack.

Nice and sturdy cards

The aim of the game is to fulfil retro-futurist (dare I say) missions in which, for instance, you have to order events chronologically or gather events from the same decade. Though not all missions are (so to say) chrono-oriented, and (ironically) not all events belong to the past (example: "Nancy Armstrong becomes the first person to cycle around the moon"; answer: "2053"), a fair knowledge of cycling history is useful to enjoy the game. That is why it can be considered a quiz game in some aspects.

The game is also offered as a free download under a Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 4.0 licence (which makes me partial to it). Unfortunately, at the moment of writing the print-and-play version is not optimised. You can check the game, check the rules, but it is probably easier to order the game than to print it.

 

That is, if you can convince Quention to send you the game! He is the kind of person who prefers to hand the games in person rather than send them by mail. Which is nice: that is how I had the pleasure to meet him.

 

Enough said, since you can read the rules by yourself provided you read French. Just let me add that it is a game made by a cycling lover for cycling lovers, which, if you are reading this, might well be your case.

Download/order the game or read the rules here

Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 4.0 license

Thanks Quentin for this game!