CYKOM Pro Cycling Quiz Board Game

The CYKOM Pro Cycling Quiz is a great idea, but unless you're a super nerd in all things cycling, it's a very challenging game to play. The build quality and gameplay also leave a bit to be desired, for the price point.

The idea of this quiz game really excited me. As a cycling nerd, I love watching bike races throughout the year, and not just the big ones like the Tour de France, so I thought this game would be perfect for someone like me – and that I'd be able to answer most of the questions. However, I didn't really consider the fact that this game has somewhere in the region of 1,500 individual questions, and these can't all be 'What bike did Tadej Pogacar win his first Tour de France on?'...

> Buy now: Pro Cycling Quiz for £41 from CYKOM

The aim of the game is to make your way around the board, which is laid out like the race calendar, starting with Strade Bianche and ending with Il Lombardia. To move your piece, you must correctly answer the quiz questions asked of you; you score points and move around the board.

The gameplay is not very tactical – it's purely down to knowledge. The only additions to the gameplay are three 'power ups', which can be used to gain an advantage: Sticky Bottle, Elbow and Wheelsucker. They allow you to benefit from the other people playing, or get a little advantage, but can't really be classed as in-depth tactics.

Starting the game is quite humorous, with the first player to go being the one 'with the biggest thighs', so it was funny to read that in the instructions.

Once we started playing, the level of questions quickly become apparent, ranging from reasonably challenging to incredibly obscure, with little to no chance of anyone other than a die-hard fan being able to answer.

To give you an idea of the variety of questions, one was 'Which French bike brand sponsor bikes for the Groupama-FDJ team?', while another was 'In which year did Danish rider Rolf Sørensen win the Tour of Flanders?' – and others such as 'Who got second place...?' in a particular race.

As the game has only just been released, it is the most up to date that it's ever going to be, which begs the question as to how relatable the questions are going to be in five or so years... a dilemma faced by all quiz games, though, I suppose.

The instructions say that a game should last around 30-60 minutes, but after an hour of gameplay we were less than halfway around the board, and had resorted to tweaking the rules slightly, so as to try to actually be able to score points and keep the game progressing.

It's hard to work out who this game is really aimed at, as I think the majority of cycling fans would really struggle with the questions. I'd guess only the top one per cent of cycling fans would be able to answer enough to actually make it around the board without giving up. It's also worth pointing out that even if you're a cycling mega fan, you'll also need at least one mega fan to play against.

What was also slightly disappointing was the quality of the player pieces, which are made out of cheap feeling plastic. Having played the quiz with some friends who are well versed in the board game world, they said the pieces feel like those from games costing less than half the price of the CYKOM game.

Another area that became a bit of an issue was the size of the font on the question cards. As someone with great eyesight and no need for glasses, I didn't have a problem, but when playing with older people with poorer eyesight, they really struggled to read the questions on the cards, especially without perfect lighting.

Conclusion

Overall, I love the idea of a cycling board game, and as a huge cycling fan I was super excited to play this one. However, the difficulty of the questions and the lack of intricate gameplay felt slightly disappointing. If you and some friends are huge cycling nerds then this could be the game for you, but even keen cycing fans will struggle to answer many questions. That said, it's definitely a good way to up your knowledge.

Verdict

A great idea, but very challenging questions and slightly underwhelming quality