Tour De France Classifications Explained

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.

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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.

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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.

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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

Author

  • Christian Moss

    Christian is the Social Media manager at Merlin Cycles. Christian brings an air of levity to the blog, coupled with a generous splash of irreverence. As part of his responsibilities, Christian manages the Facebook and Twitter accounts. Christian is also the resident photographer here at Merlin.

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