Welcome to this website’s off-season sports sartorial content. We are counting down the world’s top 50 most iconic sports uniforms. Only current uniforms apply, we are not including one-off or alternate uniforms. Let’s stick to the basics.
#17
Tour de France General Classification Leader’s Jersey
The annual Tour de France comprises 21 race days over 23 total days and features a lot of uniform related fun. After each stage, uniforms can change and a bevy of points systems need to be tracked to know who is wearing which colors. The King of the Mountains scorer wears the white and red polka dot kit, the leader in sprint points wears green, the top 25 and under racer wears white, the top combativity racer wears golden numbers, and the team with the best 3 rider times overall are allowed to wear yellow helmets.
However, nothing is as iconic as the overall general classification leader’s yellow jersey.
The tradition of the overall race leader wearing a yellow jersey began with the 1919 Tour that re-opened the passion of the sport following the end of World War I. Since the organizing group L’Auto printed their newspapers on yellow paper they decided to use this color for the Tour’s leader jersey, as well.
The traditions regarding the maillot jaune have expanded as the decade’s have passed and with it comes a variety of written and unwritten rules. The leader’s team is expected to ‘defend’ the jersey which typically means riding at the front of the peloton and working harder than its rivals. However, respect is given to the yellow jersey where attacks are frowned upon if the leader has a mechanical problem with their bike or need to stop for a quick nature break.
Today, riders who lead the Tour in GC are allowed to accessorize their kit and bike with as much yellow as they please. Using a yellow bike, helmet, socks, and bar tape are all pretty standard additional accents although some riders will also wear yellow shorts and shoes, too.
A quirk of the Tour is that the yellow jersey (and others worn during the race) cannot be provided by the teams. Instead, the jerseys are provided by race organizer ASO which occasionally brings gripes from the riders for being less aero than their team kit.
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Further, they play each other in the first round
Thinking outside the box with a uniform from a nontraditional sport? I’ll allow it
I feel like there’s a little bit of bias in this pick that Eric should be getting some pushback for, but he did build this nice place for us to hang out in, so personally I’m looking the other way. Maybe we should applaud him for not putting this higher? The top 10 is going to be spicy if he put the yellow jersey this low.
The yellow jersey is without a doubt more iconic, but I’ve grown to favor the pink jersey of the Giro