Tourist
The fight for the mountain jersey also begins on the first mounting stage of the Tour de France. The iconic white jersey with the red dots was first awarded in 1975 and has been very popular for 50 years.
Tim Wellens was in Châteauroux Once again on the podium of the Tour de Francehis arms stretched up and was celebrated as the leader of the mountain ranking – probably for the last time on this tour. The Belgian is an important helper by the top favorite Tadej Pogacar. At the first stages of the mountain, he will probably have to stay with his captain and therefore probably have to hand in the iconic white jersey with the red dots – maybe even to Pogacar.
On the tenth stage through the central massif, the struggle for the mountain jersey begins: on the 165.3 kilometers from Ennezat on the Puy de Sancy there are a maximum of 32 points. On the nine daily sections in front of it, there were a maximum of 37 points. “For me, a day in the dotted jersey was a bonus”said Wellens in Châteauroux. “I didn’t expect that before the tour. Now it will go to someone who deserves it.”
The mountain jersey is a marketing idea
The dotted mountain jersey, which the French as “Maillot Blanc à Pois Rouge“, as a white jersey with red peas, is the most popular jersey of the tour. At least among the fans on the side of the road, which are too thousands of white T -shirts and caps with red dots. This is mainly due to the fact that the sponsor of the mountain jersey – a French supermarket chain – brings them to the people on every stage.
Better marketing was also the reason why this jersey was designed at all and awarded for the first time 50 years ago. However, there has been a prize for the best mountaineer at the Tour de France since 1933. The first winner was the Spaniard Vincente Trueba.
In 1975 it worried the sponsor of the mountain price, a chocolate manufacturer that was not visible with the commitment. The then tour director Félix Lévitan Finally came to the extravagant jersey with the red dots based on the same clothing of a French railway wheel driver from the 1930s.
The first winner of the jersey was Lucien van Impe
Since then, white has been the characteristic of the best mountain driver with red dots. The first bike professional to carry the new jersey to Paris in 1975 was the Belgian Lucien Van Impe, who won the tour a year later and had been honored twice as the best mountaineer in previous years. Just without a jersey. He won that three more times afterwards: 1977, 1981 and 1983.
The new visibility has changed everything and increased its popularity enormously, Van Impe said about the introduction of the mountain jersey. The latter also applied to the record winner, the French Richard Virenquewho won the dotted jersey between 1994 and 2004 seven times.
Virenque was one of the main protagonists of the doping scandal around the Festina team in 1998. The Frenchman summarized his innocence for a long time, until he finally took a tearful confession and was blocked for seven months. His compatriots still celebrated him when he was traveling with the red dots. Even after his career, Virenque was present for a long time on the tour and whenever he showed up, he was a acclaimed man.
Gift in vain struggle
German drivers have already carried the white jersey with the red dots, including ARD expert Fabian Wegmann, who was allowed to cover the popular piece of clothing in 2005 and 2006 for at least a few days. The mountain jersey has not yet won a German driver. It was very close to Simon Geschke, who defended the jersey for nine days and only three days before the end of the tour on the last mountain stage at the later overall winner Jonas Vingegaard had to give up.
That is still “A very bitter pill”said Geschke in an interview with the sports show last year. The red dots did not like him when he was allowed to cover up the jersey for the first time – not his style. The prestige that the beam of the mountain jersey gains also felt gift when he was allowed to enter the first series of starters in addition to the other jersey carriers in yellow, green and white every morning: “I would have been the first German ever to have won the mountain jersey. I could have personally sat down a monument. That would have been almost higher than the stage victory. It happens in one day. But the mountain jersey, I had to work for almost two weeks. It is almost like overall rating.”
The fight has become more difficult for pure climbers
This is exactly what people love about it. Because if you want to win the mountain jersey, you have to fight: The best way to secure the mountain points is to make it into an outlier group as often as possible and to sprint the points before the mountain ratings.
In recent years it has become increasingly difficult for good climbers who are out of the question for the overall classification to win the dotted jersey. Because with the insatiable nature of the big teams in modern cycling and the offensive driving style of a Tadej Pogacar, the best drivers get many points for the overall classification and are therefore high in the rating.
Between 2020 and 2023, the winner of the yellow jersey was also the winner of the mountain jersey. This also had to do with a change of control that secured the stage winner the double score for the stage winner. This will only be the case this year, at the finish of the 18th stage on the 2.304 meter high Col de la Loze.
One who has set the win of the mountain jersey as a possible goal is the Dane Mattias Skjelmosis from Team Lidl-Trek, the Italian Giulio Ciccone Two years ago, supported the dotted jersey. “He looked cool in it”says Skjelmose. “Let’s see, maybe I’ll look cool in it too.”