Since the first Tour de France in 1903, there have been 1,952 stages, up to and including the 21st stage of the 2009 Tour de France. Since 1919, the race leader following each stage has been awarded the yellow jersey (French: Maillot jaune).
Although the leader of the classification after a stage gets a yellow jersey, he is not considered the winner of the yellow jersey, only the wearer. Only after the final stage, the wearer of the yellow jersey is considered the winner of the yellow jersey, and thereby the winner of the Tour de France.
In this article first-place-classifications before 1919 are also counted as if a yellow jersey was awarded. There have been more yellow jerseys given than there were stages: In 1913,[1] 1929,[2] and 1931,[3] there were multiple cyclists with the same leading time, and the 1988 Tour de France had a "prelude",[4] an extra stage for a select group of cyclists. As of 2009, 1,952 yellow jerseys have been awarded in the Tour de France to 267 different riders.
Individual records
Key:
Cyclists who won the Tour de France
Cyclists who are still active
Cyclists who won the Tour de France and are still active
In previous tours, sometimes a stage was broken in two (or three). On such occasions, only the cyclist leading at the end of the day is counted. The "Jerseys" column gives the number of days that the cyclist wore the yellow jersey, the "Tour wins" column gives the number of days that the cyclist won the yellow jersey. The next four columns indicate the number of times the rider won the points classification, the King of the Mountains classification, and the young rider competition, and the years in which the yellow jersey was worn, with bold years indicating an overall Tour win. For example: Eddy Merckx has spent 96 days in the yellow jersey, won the general classification five times, won the points classification three times, won the mountains classification two times, and never won the young rider classification.[5] He wore the yellow jersey in the Tours of 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974 (which he all won) and 1975 (which he did not win).
Three cyclists (Jean Robic in 1947, Charly Gaul in 1958 and Jan Janssen in 1968) have won the Tour de France with only two yellow jerseys in their career.
Aside from the returning Lance Armstrong, Fabian Cancellara is, as of 2009, the active cyclist who wore the most yellow jerseys, 15.[6] The other three active Tour de France winners Óscar Pereiro, Alberto Contador and Carlos Sastre rank 64th, 50th and 99th, with eight, eleven and five days in yellow respectively.
This list is complete and up to date as of after the 2009 Tour de France.
^ abcIn 1929, Nicolas Frantz (LUX), André Leducq (FRA) and Victor Fontan (FRA) were all three declared leader after the 7th stage.[2]
^ abIn 1913, Philippe Thys and Jean Rossius were both declared leader for 4 days.[1]
^In 1988, on 19 July, there were two stages. Other than the split stages that the Tour de France saw earlier, these two stages were counted as individual stages, so Pedro Delgado received two yellow jerseys on that day.
^ abBefore Floyd Landis' 2006 Tourde France victory and days in yellow were officially removed, he wore the yellow jersey for 5 days. After his disqualification, Cyril Dessel's total increased with 2 extra days, and Óscar Pereiro's total with 3 days.
^ abIn 1931, Charles Pélissier (FRA) and Raffaele Di Paco (ITA) were both declared leader after the 5th stage.[3]
^Jan Raas won the prologue of the 1978 Tour de France. Because the weather changed dramatically during that prologue, the race was invalidated, and Raas was not awarded a yellow jersey.[7] In cycling statistics lists, including the official database from the Tour de France organisation[8], the victory is awarded to Jan Raas, so this is also done in the list above.
^In 1988, the Tour de France started with a prelude, a 1km time trial in which one cyclist from every team could compete. This prelude was won by Guido Bontempi, who wore the yellow jersey on the first real stage of the 1988 Tour.[4]
Per country
The yellow jersey has been awarded to 22 different countries since 1903. In the table below, "Jerseys" indicates the number of yellow jerseys that were given to cyclists of each country. "Tour wins" stands for the number of tour wins by cyclists of that country,[9] "Points" for the number of times the points classification was won by cyclist of that country,[10] "KoM" for the number of times the mountains classification in the Tour de France was won by a cyclist of that country,[11] and "Young rider" for the number of times the young rider classification was won by a cyclist of that country.[12]
The "Most recent" column shows the cyclist of the country that wore the yellow jersey most recently. The "Different holders" column gives the number of different cyclists of the country that wore the yellow jersey.
Fired by his team (for lying about his pre-race whereabouts)
Yellow jersey winners without winning any stage
Usually the winner of the Tour the France also wins a stage, but that is not necessary. It is possible to be the winner of the Tour de France without winning a stage, because the Tour de France is decided by the total raced time. This has happened six times so far:[14]
Of these six cyclists, Walkowiak is the only one never to win a Tour stage at all.[15] (Firmin Lambot won stages in the 1913, 1914, 1919, 1920 and 1921 Tours[16], Gastone Nencini won stages in the 1956, 1957 and 1958 Tours[17], Aimar won a stage in the 1967 Tour[18], LeMond won stages in the 1985, 1986 and 1989 Tours[19], and Pereiro won a stage in the 2005 Tour[20].)
Number of Tour winners in a single race
Every Tour de France only has one winner. But a cyclist that has won the Tour de France previously can enter the race again, and a cyclist not winning the race can win the race in a later year. In almost every Tour de France, there were multiple 'former of future' Tour de France-winners in the race.
Only seven times, the Tour started without any former Tour de France winner. This happened in 1903, 1927, 1947, 1956, 1966, 1999 and 2006. Only in 1903, apart from the cyclist that won the race, there was no other former or future Tour de France winner.
In 1914, a record of seven former Tour de France winners started that year's Tour[21]:
Eleven cyclists won the final yellow jersey of the Tour de France (and therefore the overall classification) the first time they entered the competition.
1903 - Maurice Garin in the first ever Tour de France
^ abMcGann, Bill. The Story of the Tour De France. Dog Ear Publishing. p. 92. ISBN1598581805. Retrieved 2008-03-17. Frantz, André Leducq and Victor Fontan, who were in that winning stage 17 break, were exactly tied in time. Today the judges would go back to the time trial and look at the fractions-of-a-second differences. If that doesn't resolve the tie, then a look at placings solves the problem. The Tour didn't have rules to take care of ties, so 3 Yellow Jerseys were awarded.{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
^ abMcGann, Bill. The Story of the Tour De France. Dog Ear Publishing. p. 118. ISBN1598581805. Retrieved 2008-03-17. Leading up to the Pyrenees, Italy's ace sprinter Rafaelo di Paco dueled with France's Charles Pélissier for stage wins and the lead. After stage 5 they shared the lead for a single day.{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)