The Tour de France is nearly upon us so let’s take a look at the various jerseys and classifications that await our winners.
Yellow Jersey
This is worn by the overall leader of the tour, the rider who is leading by the least overall amount of time. The yellow jersey was originally a yellow armband up until 1919 when it changed to the jersey that has come to be the symbol of victory in modern cycle events.
Although the other 2 grand tours (Italy and Spain) opt for different colours, yellow is the most used colour of winner’s jersey in the cycling world. The colour yellow was determined by the jerseys sponsor at the time L’Auto, who printed its newspapers on yellow paper. It is possible to win the yellow jersey without ever winning a stage, this has occurred on 6 occasions.
Green Jersey
First worn in 1953 this is awarded to the rider who currently has the most points in the race. Points are awarded to the first 15 riders over the line and can vary in amount dependant on the type of terrain on that day’s course.
Points are also awarded in intermediate sprints that are spread out over the course, usually 1 or 2 per stage. Erik Zabel has the current record in the category having won in Green, 6 years in a row!
Green Jersey points system
|
Type |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
5th |
6th |
7th |
8th |
9th |
10th |
11th |
12th |
13th |
14th |
15th |
|
| Flat stage finish | 45 | 35 | 30 | 26 | 22 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | |
| Medium mountain stage finish | 30 | 25 | 22 | 19 | 17 | 15 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | |
| High mountain stage finish | 20 | 17 | 15 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Individual time trial | 20 | 17 | 15 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| intermediate sprint | 20 | 17 | 15 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
King of the Mountains
You can’t fail to miss the wearer of this jersey with its white background and red polka dot design. Introduced in 1933 it is awarded to the rider who is most successful over the mountains with various points being awarded, the more points the more difficult the climb.
The point distribution for the mountains is as follows
|
Type |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
5th |
6th |
7th |
8th |
9th |
10th |
|
| HC – High Catagory | 25 | 20 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | |
| First Category | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Second Category | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||||
| Third Category | 2 | 1 | |||||||||
| Fourth Category | 1 | ||||||||||
Richard Virenque holds the record in this category having won this jersey an amazing 7 times.
Young rider classification
The white jersey is the most recently introduced (1975) and goes the highest placed rider in the overall general classification aged under 26. Four riders have won both the young rider classification and the general classification in the same year: Laurent Fignon (1983), Jan Ullrich (1997), Alberto Contador (2007), and Andy Schleck (2010).
2014 Tour de France Results
Overall winner – Vincenzo Nibali (Astana)
Second – Jean-Christophe Péraud (Ag2r-La Mondiale)
Third – Thibaut Pinot (FDJ)
Points Classification – Peter Sagan (Cannondale)
KOM – Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo)
Youth Classification – Thibaut Pinot (FDJ)
Team Classification – Ag2r-La Mondiale
