Le Tour

For those of you that haven't been keeping track, The Tour de France started on Saturday. I've decided to include a couple posts over the next 3 weeks with some interesting facts, history, etc about the tour and bicycling in general.

First off, I have to declare my allegiance to Team Garmin Slipstream, and it's not just because their logo/design includes argyle. On Saturday I watched a documentary about the creation of the team (they have only been around a couple years) and it was very moving. I don't follow any sports, so all it takes is a little insight into the team members to make me decide wether or not to support the team.





On to the facts of the day, JERSEYS! (info via wikipedia)



We all know about the yellow jersy, awarded to the overall time leader. It is a bit unclear when the first yellow jersey was awarded. The first official yellow jersey was in 1919 for the winner of a stage from Grenoble. However, there is evidence that the first time a yelow jersey was passed between riders was as early as 1914. Starting in 1924, companies paid a daily prize, known as "rent" to the jersey wearer.

The green jersey is awarded to the points leader. Points are awarded in various amounts to the first 25 riders to finish in flat stages, the first 20 to finish in medium-mountain stages, the first 15 in high-mountain stages, and the top ten finishers in time trial stages. (more about the 21 stages in later post) There are also points awarded for sprints that are spread throughout the stages. The points competition started in 1953 to celebrate the 50th aniversary of the tour.

King of the Hills jersey (currently polka-dot) is awarded for the first to summit particular peaks. Recognition for best climber was started in 1933, time bonuses were awarded starting in 1934 (the gap between fisrt and second is deducted from the first riders time) but are no longer awarded. The jersey was awarded starting in 1975. It was sponsored by a chocolate company, which chose the colors to match a product they were adversising. (I need to do some more research into this)

The white jersey is awarded for the best placed rider under the age of 26 as of Jan 1 of the tour year. Originally the white jersey had been awarded to the best overall rider (combining time, points, and climbing competitions) but as of 1975 it went to the young rider.

Additional awards:


The combativity award is given to the rider (chosen by a panel of judges) who has been most aggressive in that stage. This rider is often attacking the leaders, forcing them to expend energy sooner than they would like to avoid falling behind. It has an off and on history, but has been given yearly since 1981. Since that time no winner of the combativity award has won the Tour. I think it is really an award for a team player. My uneducated guess would be that these aggressive riders are instructed to mount an attack to allow their team's lead rider to benefit from a weakening of his toughest opponents. There is not an actual jersey for this award, but the rider who won it for the previous stage will often have his number in white on a red background, rather than the traditional black on white.



Like the combativity, the team prize does not have a jersey. The team prize is determined by adding the times of the top three riders of a team, not counting time bonuses or penalties. The team prize winners of the previous stage will wear their numbers in black against a yellow background.



Look for these jerseys (as well as the argyle of Garmin-Slipstream) when you're watching the race (or at least the highlights) over the next three weeks. (full coverage on Versus)