tour de france rules and scoring

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Tour de France – The Rules Explained

Some teams will focus on the general classification Yellow Jersey, whereas others will focus on winning sprints for The Green or the King of the Mountains Spotted Jersey. There are many rules, both spoken and unspoken, as teams stand to gain a lot from cooperation and respect. Here is what you need to know to enjoy watching Le Tour.

Keep the leaders safe

The start of Le Tour is always an edgy affair as teams compete to establish themselves at the head of the peloton. Crashes and injuries are a real risk, so team leaders need to be protected by their domestiques who effectively muscle everyone else away.

The irony is, the more the teams muscle each other away, the greater the risk of crashes in the peloton. The safest place to be is the front, and everyone is fighting to be there. This Catch 22 situation is almost impossible to mitigate through any official rules, but it’s exciting to watch.

The Yellow Jersey

Winning the General Classification (GC) means you get to wear The Maillot Jaune, aka The Yellow Jersey. To win the GC the leader of a race team must complete all the stages with the lowest overall time.

This means that a GC contender should be a solid all-rounder, equally at home on the mountains as they are in time-trial stages. It can become confusing when you consider a rider could win the GC without winning any individual stage.

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Think of it like this – Mark Cavendish may win every flat stage suited to a sprinter, but will probably finish mountain stages at least 20 minutes behind the likes of Nairo Quintana, whereas Quintana will finish a sprint stage within 3 minutes of Cavendish.

Breaks and stage wins

Regardless of who wins the overall Yellow Jersey, an individual stage win on Le Tour is always a special event, and smaller teams will often target one or two specific stages out of the Tour simply to get on the podium. Breaks are the coolest way to achieve that, but not the easiest.

Early on in a stage you may see a small group of riders attempt a break. Usually these are lower order riders with nothing to lose – they keep their sponsors happy by grabbing TV coverage, and most of the time they’re easily caught by the peloton that uses energy much more efficiently.

Royal Breaks

That doesn’t mean that Yellow and Green Jersey contenders can’t have some fun going for a break, but they’re only likely to do it when conditions go in their favour – and in 2016 that’s exactly what Froome and Sagan exploited.

Stage 11 of Le Tour was plagued with crosswinds, so the peloton had been doing their best to speed through it. Sagan found himself at the front with Thomas, Bodnar, and Froome. The Peloton was battered and bruised from minor crashes down the coastal route from Carcasonne, so when Sagan attacked, few cyclists felt confident enough to respond.

Froome leapt on Sagan’s wheel, and Bodnar and Thomas read the situation and realised a fully-fledged Royal Break was on the cards, with both the Yellow and Green Jerseys of Froome and Sagan committed to escaping the peloton. Sagan won the stage, and Froome put a significant dent into his rivals for the Yellow Jersey, finishing the stage in 2nd place.

King of the Mountains

Points are given at the top of climbs for suitably impressive performance, so specialist climbers have an advantage. Climbs are categorised from 1 to 4, with 1 being the steepest. The numbers loosely correspond to the gears of a car – so to drive up a Cat 1 climb you’d need to stick your car in first gear.

Race planners may give big points at the top of a Cat 3 climb if it’s deemed long enough to pose the same challenge as a shorter Cat 1 climb. I should add that there is one climb more difficult than a Cat 1 climb – the Hors Catégorie (HC). An HC climb is beyond categorisation and originally described a climb so severe a car couldn’t pass.

Getting points for the Green Jersey

Points can be given for winning sprints at various parts of a stage, often early on to encourage teams to either up the tempo in the peloton or break early in the hopes the break may succeed.

More points are given to the sprint at the end of the stage, and this encourages teams with specialist sprinters like Sagan, Greipel, Kittel, or Cavendish to stay together. This leads to a similar paradox of teams trying to dominate the front of the peloton to give their team leader a clear run at the finish line.

The classic race rule applies – the rider with the racing line may stick to it knowing that any competing cyclist will yield their line when they realise they have the disadvantage. Naturally, this doesn’t always work in the heat of the moment and spectacular crashes are a real risk in bunch sprints.

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Results have arrived, tour de france explained: how you win & how it really works.

What do the yellow, green, and polka-dot jerseys mean? How do you win? How do teams work? Who are the favorites? We explain bike racing in this guide to the Tour de France.

Written by: Spencer Powlison & Bruce Lin

Published on: Jun 22, 2023

Posted in: Features

Did you just get bitten by the  road bike  bug? Did you watch Tour de France: Unchained and feel hungry for more? Or have you always been puzzled by the daily deluge of Tour de France news? Then this beginner’s guide is for you.

We’ll cover the fundamentals of how this “game” is played. Also, we’ll delve into cycling’s paradoxical balance between being simultaneously a team sport and an individual sport, and many ways riders and teams play to win. 

If you’re a seasoned cycling fan, please feel free to share this with your curious in-laws who always email you questions about pelotons, yellow jerseys, and more. We’ve all been there before!

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How The Tour de France Works

The tour de france: infographic.

What is the Tour de France

• The Tour de France is the world's most prestigious bike race which has been running for over 100 years. 
• The Tour takes riders all across France, through the Alps and the Pyranees, and finishes in Paris. 
• This year it will take place: July 1 - July 23, 2023
• The total race distance this year: 3,404 Km / 2,115 Mi 
• The Grand Départ - The Tour de France often starts somewhere outside of France so other cities and countries can experience the excitement of the Tour. This year, the Tour will start in Bilbao, Spain. 

Key Details 

• 22 pro cycling teams will compete with 8 riders each ( 176 riders total )
• The race is split into 21 stages
• Riders race 1 stage per day
• Each stage has a stage winner. Winning a single stage at the Tour is a big deal. 
• On average, racers will ride over 100 miles per stage .
• Riders will get 2 rest days , one after the first week, and another after the second week.  
• The overall winner of the Tour de France is the rider with the fastest time after all 21 stages . 

How To Win The Tour de France - Yellow Jersey

The winner of the Tour de France is the rider who has the fastest time after all 21 stages. Every stage is timed from start to finish, and every second counts toward the race's General Classification (GC). Every day, the current leader of the race will wear the yellow jersey so they are easy to spot. The rider wearing the yellow jersey when the race reaches the last stage Paris is the winner . 

Riders to watch:  2022 winner Jonas Vingegaard, 2020 & 2021 winner Tadej Pogačar, David Gaudu, Romain Bardet.

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Other Ways to "Win" at the Tour de France

The Yellow Jersey is the biggest prize, but there are multiple secondary prizes on offer too. Some teams and riders don’t even bother racing for the yellow jersey and instead focus on these prizes . 

Just like the yellow jersey, each day, the current leader in each classification wears a special jersey color so they're easy to spot.

Points Classification - Green Jersey

Also known as the sprinter’s jersey , this award goes to the rider who scores the most points throughout the race. Points are earned by finishing in the top-15 in a stage.

This classification favors “pure” sprinters (riders who don't compete on mountain stages), and more points are offered for winning flat stages. Riders can also earn points in mid-stage sprints that are usually stationed in towns to please the fans.

Riders to watch:  Wout van Aert, Fabio Jakobsen, Jasper Philipsen, Mads Pedersen, and Dylan Groenewegen.

King Of The Mountains Classification - Polka-Dot Jersey

The Tour gives the polka-dot “ King of the Mountains ” jersey to the rider who collects the most points over the course of the race by reaching the summit of categorized climbs first.

The climb categorization system is opaque and subjective. What you need to know is that there are five climb categories. From easiest to hardest they are: category 4,  category 3,  category 2,  category 1, and hors category (HC - French for “beyond categorization”). Riders get more points on harder climbs. Riders also get more points on mountaintop stage finishes, especially if they win.

Riders to watch:  This one is tough to call until you reach the high mountains. Often anyone who’s in contention for the yellow jersey is a good bet.

Other Prizes

Best Young Rider Classification - White Jersey

This classification works the same way as the yellow jersey but is awarded to the highest-placed rider under 26 years of age. On rare occasions, a phenomenal young rider will win both the yellow and white jerseys. 

Riders to watch: Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard.

Best Team Classification - Yellow Helmets

Like the yellow or white jerseys, this award is given based on overall time in the race and the team with the lowest overall time wins this prize . Each team tabulates the finish times of its three best riders on every stage. The team leading this classification usually wears yellow helmets, helping them stand out in the bunch.

Most Aggressive Rider - Red Number

Also known as the Combativity Award , this is likely the most mysterious prize in the Tour. In every stage (except time trials), a jury decides which rider in the race was most aggressive — usually, that means attacking a lot or gambling on a breakaway. Late in the broadcast, the announcers usually note which rider was given the combativity prize. If you spot a rider with a red number on their jersey, then he was named most aggressive the stage prior. At the end of the Tour, one rider gets the Super Combativity award.

How Cycling Is Actually a Team Sport... Sort Of

Why are there teams if only one rider can win the Tour de France? Professional road cycling has a curious tension between the team and the individual. The key thing to remember is this: If a cyclist wins a stage or holds one of the leader’s jersey for a single stage, it is viewed as a team success . 

So if only one rider “wins,” what do the other seven riders on the team do to contribute to this elusive concept of teamwork? Here are some ways a group of individual cyclists comes together as a team to support their leader:

• Getting into breakaways (small groups that attack off the front of the main group) — that way his team doesn’t have to work to chase the breakaway down.
• Chasing down breakaways — to give the leader a chance to win or place well.
• Retrieving food and water for the leader or other key riders — bottle service on the road … what could be more luxurious!
• Pacing the leader up key climbs — although drafting isn’t as crucial, it can be a psychological advantage to have a teammate at your side.
• Pacing the leader back to the peloton in the event of a crash, mechanical, or split in the group — without teammates to draft, it might be nearly impossible to rejoin the peloton on some fast-paced stages.
• Giving the leader their bike or a wheel in the event of a mechanical — this can often be quicker than waiting for a team car or neutral support to show up with a spare.

What Types of Riders Make Up a Team? 

GC (general classification) riders - These are the riders vying for the Tour de France overall win. They need to be solid all-rounders who are good climbers and time trialists. They are usually the team leader and the rest of the team works to support them. 

Sprinters - Sprinters don’t contend for the overall win, and are more interested in winning individual stages. They often wait to attack at intermediate sprints and the finish line of each stage. Some teams are built entirely around a sprinter and focus on winning stages or the green jersey. 

Climbers - Climbing specialists excel at going uphill. Climbers compete for stage wins on the tough mountain stages or work to support their GC leader in the mountains. 

Domestiques - Most riders on the team will work as “domestiques” to support their team leader. They allow their leader to draft behind them to conserve energy, pace them up climbs, carry food and water, and provide support in case of crashes or mechanicals. 

Time Trialists - Some riders specialize in time trialing. They can compete for wins on time trial stages or work as powerful domestiques on flat and hilly stages  

What Types of Stages Are in the Tour?

The Tour de France route is different every year. Each stage is unique and offers different challenges to the riders. Here are the types of stages riders will contend with over three weeks:

Flat Stages - Flat stages are the ideal hunting ground for sprinters. Teams with sprinters will often work to keep the peloton together on flat stages, to ensure it ends in a bunch sprint where their sprinter has the best chance of winning. 

Hilly Stages - Hilly stages mix it up with rolling hills that make it more difficult for the peloton to stay together. These types of stages can be won by sprinters, climbers, or breakaway specialists. 

Mountain Stages - This is often where the Tour de France is won and lost. Mountain stages climb up into the high mountains in the Alps and the Pyrenees and it's where GC contenders will fight to gain time on their rivals.  

Time Trials - The Tour de France always features at least a couple of time trial stages. Riders set off individually to set the fastest time on a set course. With no riders to draft, it’s less about race tactics and more about pure speed and power.

Strategies and tactics

So we just covered some team dynamics, rider types, and stage types. How does it all fit together? Teams often settle on strategies prior to the race. They assess their strengths and weaknesses and find ways to succeed — whether that means winning the yellow jersey or simply wearing a King of the Mountains jersey for just one stage. Here are some examples of how teams might set their strategies, and how they might execute them with the right tactics:

Team with a top GC rider: Naturally, they’ll try to win the yellow jersey. This means surviving inconsequential flat and rolling stages to conserve energy for key mountain stages and individual time trials. The leader’s teammates will try to get into breakaways so that their team won’t spend energy chasing all day. They’ll also set up the team leader to attack on key climbs or at least follow his rivals to defend his position.

Team with top sprinter: To win the green jersey, they’ll target the flat stages. This means controlling the peloton and chasing down breakaways to set up a sprint finish. Like the GC team, they might also put a rider in the breakaway to ease the burden on the team, forcing rival sprint teams to chase. On mountain stages, the team might have to call riders back from the peloton to help pace their sprinter to the finish so he doesn’t get time-cut.

Team with top climber: Winning the King of the Mountains (KOM) classification is often less of an obvious team effort. These pretenders to the throne tend to be opportunistic. However, it is advantageous to have a teammate in the breakaway on a key mountain stage when points are up for grabs. Also, when defending the polka-dot jersey, teammates can contest the climbs and finish ahead of KOM rivals to spoil their attempt to take over the classification lead by scoring points.

Smaller team without top leader: These are the teams that always try to put a rider in the day’s breakaway. This could earn them the Combativity Prize, or if they play their cards right, a stint in a leader’s jersey or even a stage win. This strategy requires constant attacking in the early kilometers of the race — something most fans rarely see on the broadcast. It is a hectic, painful part of the stage, but it’s crucial in establishing a break. Meanwhile, a breakaway rider’s teammates might patrol the front of the peloton to disrupt the chase.

Three Tips To Watch Like A Pro

Now that you understand the basics of how the Tour de France is raced, what do you, the new cycling fan do? There are daily stages for three weeks. That’s a lot of cycling!

Even if you don't have a way to watch the TV broadcast, it's easy to find highlights and extended highlights on YouTube. Fortunately, you don’t have to put your life on hold to watch the Tour de France. There are some reliably important stages you can focus on to catch the key action.

Can’t watch daily? Pick the key mountain stages. There are usually about 5-8 key mountain stages when the overall race is won and lost. Most of them are summit finishes, and they’re split between France’s two key mountain ranges: the Alps and Pyrenees. The first few ordinarily come in stages 6-9 before the first rest day, and the second round is often scheduled for the final week of racing. Occasionally, another summit finish, such as Mont Ventoux in Provence, will be on the list of important stages.

Watching daily? Tune in when things really heat up. On most flat stages, you can wait until the final 20 kilometers to tune in and see the sprinters fight it out. Some rolling stages might be entertaining in the final 50-60 kilometers if late breakaways occur. On mountain stages, it’s best to start watching as early as possible because sometimes, crazy things happen on the day’s first climbs.

Watching a LOT of TDF? Look for the nuances. If you’re going to have the race on all day, every day, you’ll need to dig a little deeper to enjoy the subtleties of the race. Try keeping track of riders who are often making the breakaway. Watch the sprint teams work together — or not — to chase an escape. Who looks to have strength in numbers, and who is not present at the front of the race? Are the GC riders staying out of trouble or tail-gunning at the dangerous back of the peloton? Usually, at any given time in the race, any given rider is positioned where they are for a specific reason. Look for clues to sort out what is happening.

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Making Sense of the Tour de France

Breaking down the scoring and terminology used in the tour de france.

Every year in July, thousands of people flood to the French countryside to watch the oldest and most epic cycling event in the world. 22 teams made up of eight riders per team take on the expedition of biking over 3,300km in 24 days, all for the glory of the Tour de France. If you’ve ever wondered how someone wins the actual Tour or why the camera is always on some guy with a yellow shirt, you’re not alone. The Tour de France has been going on for over 100 years and to a newcomer, the scoring and jargon can be confusing. Here is a beginners guide to making sense of the Tour de France.

Terminology

Like all great sports, the Tour de France and cycling, more specifically, uses a number of terms to describe the ongoing competition. Some terms are more self-explanatory than others, but these are the basic concepts you should be familiar with when watching any form of cycling.

Group Terms

Peloton : You may hear the word peloton and immediately think of the popular exercise equipment people use to compete in virtual cycling competitions. However, it's a French term that translates to Platoon , defined as a subdivision of a company of soldiers, usually forming a tactical unit that is commanded by a lieutenant and divided into several sections . That’s because cyclists in these competitions will ride in what’s called the peloton, which is the main pack of riders. Riders stay in the peloton closely together to conserve energy by drafting. 

Drafting : Because this is a race, mere milliseconds matter if you want to win. When you’re racing all day for 24 days, conserving energy is critical. Drafting is an aerodynamic technique where two vehicles or other moving objects are caused to align in a close group, reducing the overall effect of drag due to exploiting the lead object’s slipstream.

Riders can significantly reduce the required pedal effort by closely following the slipstream of the rider in front. Riding in the peloton can save as much as 40% energy in forward motion when compared to riding alone. 

Teams will designate a leader who is generally the best cyclist, and it is the team's responsibility to keep that leader out of wind and in good position before a critical chance at a break.

Breaks and Sprinters

Breaks: A break or breakaway in cycling is a pretty easy one to understand. This occurs when a group of riders break away from the peloton to have more space and freedom. A small group can maintain a higher speed than the peloton, which the remaining riders may not be as motivated or organized to chase. 

Sprinters: A ‘sprinter’ is a term used to describe a cyclist who can accelerate quickly and aggressively to a high speed. The sprinter will use the slipstream of other bikers to conserve energy until an opportunity to break arises. A team reserves its best rider as the sprinter.

Climbs and Climbers

Climbs: Climbs require lower riding speeds and reduce the drafting advantage, giving individual riders a great opportunity at a solo break away. Riders can capitalize on the descent because going downhill alone allows more space for maneuvering.

Climbers: A team will designate a climbing specialist, reserved to the rider who is exceptionally well on high-inclined roads. The climber will ride in front of his team and set the speed while mapping the best line to ride. It’s crucial to have a climber that can protect your team's lead rider during attacks.

To win the Tour de France you have to win the General Classification. There are four other classifications that can be won, however, with different restrictions and scoring systems for each. These are the five separate ways a rider or team can claim a jersey at the Tour de France.

General Classification (Yellow Jersey)

The yellow jersey is the most iconic and historic of those given out at the Tour. First given out in 1919 , the winner of the General Classification, or GC, gets to wear the yellow jersey for the next stage of the race. This is awarded to the rider who has the lowest time. The lowest combined time over the course’s entire 21-stage race will win the overall Tour de France and the GC. The actual yellow jersey comes from a marketing campaign by L’auto’s newspaper because the color matched the front page of their paper.

Mountain Classification (Polka-Dot Jersey)

The Mountain Classification is reserved for the ‘King of the Mountains’, who can be seen wearing a polka-dot jersey. This is awarded to the rider who collects the most points on the course in categorized climbs. Riders get more points on harder climbs and on mountaintop stage finishes. The polka-dot jersey was first introduced in 1975, but the designation has been given out since 1933.

Points Classification (Green Jersey)

The green jersey, also known as the “sprinters jersey”, is awarded to the rider who scores the most points throughout the course of the race. Riders can earn points by placing in the top-15 of a given stage, with an additional set of points given to the top-15 riders to cross a predetermined ‘sprint’ point during each stage. Whoever has the most points at the start of each stage wears the green jersey for the day and the cumulative leader at the end of the 21st stage wins the overall points classification.

Young Rider Classification (White Jersey)

The white jersey works the same way as yellow jersey, but only riders under 26 years of age qualify for this classification. Initially, the classification was reserved for riders in their first three years of professional racing, but was changed in 1983 so that only first-time riders could win the distinction. Finally, in 1987, the rules were changed to how they are today.

Best Team Classification (Yellow Helmets)

The last classification is the best team classification, but this doesn’t really impact racers strategy. Teams select the three riders with the lowest scores and add the times together. The team with the lowest combined score wins best team classifications and wears yellow helmets. 

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Tour de France Guide

Regulations of the tour.

Overall ranking

The general overall individual time ranking is established by adding together the times achieved by each rider in the 21 stages.

Points ranking

The individual points ranking is obtained by adding together the points recorded in the individual rankings for each stage, according to the following tables:

Best climber ranking

The best overall climber ranking is established by adding together the points obtained on all passes or climbs, based on the following tables:

Summits that lie within the second half of a stage, and that are over 2,000 metres, earn double the points for the mountains classification.

In addition to points for the mountains classification, certain summits bring time bonuses for the general classification: each of these locations is known as a "Bonus Point".

Irrespective of the category of the climb, a Bonus Point offers -8, -5 and -3 seconds to the first 3 at the summit

Young rider ranking

The young rider classification is reserved for riders aged 25 or under. The one that is best ranked in the general classification on time is the daily leader of the young riders. At the end of the last stage, he is declared winner of the young rider classification.

Ranking by team

The general overall team ranking is established by adding together the three best individual times of each team in all stages.

Combative ranking

In games, by contrast to reality, the most combative is not designated by a jury. It is the rider who has cycled the most kilometres at the head of the race. The most combative is the rider who has cycled the most during a Tour de France.

Stage rankings

At each stage (apart from the time trial stages), the first 3 win time bonuses: -10, -6 and -4 seconds.

Tour de France Guide

Here’s the 2023 Tour de France guide starting with the profiles of every stage with a quick summary of the day’s course.

There’s also the race rules like time bonuses, the points scale for the green and polka-dot jerseys, time cuts and more in case you need to look them up during July, just remember inrng.com/tour …or bookmark it .

Route Summary With the start in the Basque Country the race visits the Pyrenees but can’t go to deep into the mountains too soon for fear of revealing the GC contest too soon. Instead the Massif Central, the Jura, the Alps and then the Vosges all supply plenty of climbing, a record amount of top-rated climbs say the organisers and while this label is subjective, it is a certainly vertical vintage for the climbers, there’s only one short time trial and that’s hilly.

There are nods to history, the Tour will revive the old stories for the Puy de Dôme but its inclusion is all about reviving the location rather evoking black-and-white film reels. The Tourmalet is arguably the only other legendary climb en route, the Grand Colombier and Loze are tough but they’re “new” finds.

There are eight sprint stages but that’s at the most and there’s variety among them from motor racing circuits to uphill finishes.

The Jerseys

Yellow : the most famous one, the maillot jaune , it is awarded to the rider with the shortest overall time for all the stages added together, the rider who has covered the course faster than anyone else. First awarded in 1919, it is yellow because the race was organised by the newspaper L’Auto which was printed on yellow paper. Today it is sponsored by LCL, a bank.

There are time bonuses of 10-6-4 seconds for the finish of each stage except the time trials. There are also 8-5-2 seconds at the bonus sprints marked “B” in yellow on the profiles above on Stages 2,5,12,14 and 17.

Green : the points jersey, which tends to reward the sprinters. Points are awarded at the finish line and at one intermediate point in the stage and the rider with the most points wears the jersey. It is sponsored by Skoda, a car manufacturer.

• Flat stages (Stages 2,3,4,7,8,11,18,19,21) 50-30-20-18-16-14-12-10-8-7-6-5-4-3 and 2 points for the first 15 riders
• Hilly finish / Medium mountain stages (Stages 1,9,10,12,13): 30-25-22-19-17-15-13-11-9-7-6- 5-4-3-2 points
• Mountain Stages + individual TT (Stages 5,6,14,15,16,17,20) : 20-17-15-13-11- 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 points
• Intermediate sprints: 20-17-15-13-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 points

Polka dot : also known as the “King of the Mountains” jersey, points are awarded at the top of categorised climbs and mountain passes, with these graded from the easier 4th category to the hors catégorie climbs which are so hard they are off the scale. In reality these gradings are subjective. Again the rider with the most points wears the jersey. It is sponsored by Leclerc, a supermarket.

• Hors Catégorie double (Col de la Loze): 40-30-24-20-16-12-8-4 points
• Hors Catégorie (5 in total): 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-2 points
• Category 1 climbs (13): 10-8-6-4-2-1 points
• Category 2 (10): 5-3-2-1 points
• Category 3 (23): 2-1 points
• Category 4 (17): 1 point

White : for the best young rider, this is awarded on the same basis as the yellow jersey, except the rider must be born after 1 January 1998, ie aged 25 or under. It is sponsored by Krys, a retail chain of opticians

Timekeeping Three second rule : normally a one second gap on the finish line is needed to separate groups in a finish but for Stages 3,4,7,8,11,18,19 and 21, the likely sprint stages, three seconds is needed for a split in the field. The three kilometre rule doesn’t apply on Stages 6,9,13,15 and 17.

Stages are given a coefficient rating from 1-6, look up the stage’s rating in the table above. Then see the average speed for the day’s winner and look up the corresponding line below to calculate the time cut.

• Each day on a normal stage there’s €11,000 for the winner, €5,500 for second place and a decreasing scale down to a modest €300 for 20th place
• For the final overall classification in Paris, first place brings in €500,000 and the Sèvres porcelain “omnisports trophy”, awarded “in the name of the Presidency of the French Republic”. The full breakdown is €500,000 for first place, €200,000 for second place, €100,000 for third place and then €70,000, €50,000, €23,000, €11,500, €7,600, €4,500, €3,800, €3,000, €2,700, €2,500, €2,100, €2,000 €1,500, €1,300, €1,200 and €1,100 for 19th place. €1,000 for 20th-160th overall

There are other pots of money available in the race:

• €500 a day to whoever wears the yellow jersey
• €300 for the other jersey holders
• €25,000 for the final winner of the green and polka dot jerseys, €15,000 for second place, €10,000 for third place, €4,000, €3,500, €2,500, and €2,000 for eighth in the competition
• €20,000 for the final winner of the white jersey
• There’s also money for the first three in the intermediate sprint each day: €1,500, €1000 and €500
• The climbs have cash too with the first three over an hors catégorie climb earning €800, €450 and €300 and lesser sums for lesser climbs down to €200 for winning a 4th category climb
• The highest point in the race sees a prize when on Stage 17 the Henri Desgrange prize is awarded at the Col de La Loze and is worth €5,000
• the Jacques Goddet prize is also €5,000 for the first over the Tourmalet on Stage 6
• The “most combative” prize is awarded and worth €2,000 each day, the “Super combative” prize is awarded in Paris and the winner collects €20,000.
• There’s also a team prize with €2,800 awarded each day to the leading team on the overall, €50,000 for the final winners in Paris. Note the team prize is calculated by adding the time of the best three riders each day rather than the best three on GC. For example if a team has riders A, B and C make the winning break one day then their times for the stage are taken and added together. If riders X, Y and Z on the same team go up the road the next day, their times are taken. So it’s the times of a team’s best three riders each day as opposed to the best three riders overall.

The total prize pot is €2,581,029, meagre for an event of this scale but remember that unlike, say tennis or golf, pro cyclists are salaried and paid bonuses by their employers the teams. So prize money instead is a nice bonus on the side. Win a Tour stage and a rider might add a zero onto the salary, maybe more and so the race creates value rather than pays it. Crucially prize money is shared around the team (as well as levied and taxed) rather than pocketed by the winner, it’s possible the actual prize winner sees 5-10% of the headline sum . In addition, every team that starts gets paid a participation fee of €51,243 to cover expenses. And should a squad make it to Paris with six or more riders they stand to collect an additional €1,600 bonus for each rider.

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Baffled by the Tour de France rules? Read these four points

It is one of the most-watched sporting events in the world but do you know what the jersey colours mean and why riders are not only trying to finish in the fastest time.

This year's Tour de France is under way with cyclists setting off from Bilbao, Spain, on Saturday (July 1).

They arrive in Bayonne on Monday (July 3) and, after a course that takes in the south-west, central France and the French Alps, will finish in Paris on July 23.

It is one of the most-watched sporting events of the year and attracts more than a billion viewers from around the world.

But following the rules of the race for beginners can be difficult, with riders celebrating being given coloured jerseys, some riders going gung-ho for small sections before dropping back, etc.

Here we answer four common questions about the race to help first-time watchers get to grips with it.

Read more: Beer cheat, peeing, Donald Trump: Six facts about the Tour de France

1. What do the different coloured jerseys mean?

There are four different coloured jerseys given out to cyclists for certain accomplishments.

The four different winners’ jerseys at the Tour de France. Credit: A.S.O./Fabien Boukla

The yellow jersey ( maillot jaune )

This jersey is given to the leader of the general classification. This means the cyclist who has the fastest overall time since the start of the race.

The Tour de France is broken down into 21 stages so the cyclist who completes the first stage the fastest is given the yellow jersey to wear for the second stage. After that, it is given to whoever has the fastest overall time, not necessarily the person who wins the stage.

For example, a cyclist could come fourth in every stage and still end up winning the Tour de France overall due to having the fastest time.

The green jersey ( maillot vert )

This is also known as the “points classification jersey”. The Tour de France is not only a competition to see who can finish the stages in the fastest time, there is also a secondary element where riders collect points.

These points are given for finishing the stage quickly, winning sprint sections that take place during the stages and for performing well in mountain sections.

The cyclist who has the most points wears the green jersey. If a cyclist happens to be leading the general classification and the points classification at the same time, they will wear the yellow jersey and the person in second place will wear the green jersey.

The polka dot jersey ( maillot blanc à pois rouges )

This jersey is given to the ‘king of the mountains’, meaning the rider who does the best during the mountain sections. Mountain points vary depending on the difficulty of the climb. We explain later in the article the different categorisation of the mountain sections.

The white jersey ( maillot blanc )

This jersey is awarded for the same reasons as the yellow jersey but only to riders who are 25 years old or younger.

Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogačar won both the white jersey and the yellow jersey in 2021.

Read more: 7 French expressions to talk about the Tour de France

2. How do the teams work?

There are 22 teams in the Tour de France each with eight or nine cyclists. All the riders have different strengths and weaknesses, with some good at flat sprint sections, others good in mountain sections and others all-rounders.

Each team usually has at least one rider who is their main contender to win the yellow jersey – this cyclist is known as the team’s leader. Some teams have several leaders.

The other members of the team act as domestiques , these are the riders who support the leader in whatever way they can to help them win the race. This could involve shielding them from the wind, bringing them water or even offering them their bike in case of a mechanical failure.

Usually the team members take turns to act as domestiques depending on the section of the stage. For example, the leader may help out the team’s strong sprinter if necessary.

In this way it is a complete team effort to win the race.

3. How are the climbs classified?

As mentioned above, riders win points for performing well in mountain sections of the race. The harder the section, the more points they can win.

The difficulty depends on the height of the mountain, the distance of the mountain section, the average slope steepness and certain other factors. There are five grades: four, three, two, one and what is called “ hors catégorie ” (HC). Four is the easiest and HC is the hardest.

4. How long do the riders get to finish each stage?

The Tour de France has what is called a “time cut” that applies to every stage. It means that all riders must finish within a certain time after the stage winner.

The time cut is a percentage of the stage winner’s finishing time, usually somewhere between 15-25%.

For example, if a time cut is set at 25% and the winning cyclist finishes in two hours, all riders will have to finish in no longer than two hours and 30 minutes or they will be eliminated from the race.

The time cut is calculated for each stage based on various elements, such as the length and difficulty of the stage.

In some rare instances riders who are eliminated are allowed to continue the race – for example if they missed the time cut due to technical issues. However, they lose all their points so it is unlikely they will win the green or polka dot jerseys.

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Tour de France Explained: How You Win & How It Really Works

What do the yellow, green, and polka-dot jerseys mean? How do you win? How do teams work? Who are the favorites? We explain bike racing in this guide to the Tour de France.

Written by Spencer Powlison

A typical sporting event reads like a children’s book. See Team A take ball. Ball goes in goal. Team A wins. Go team go!

On the other hand, the Tour de France presents itself as an epic Tolstoyan saga, spanning 21 days with nearly 200 characters and myriad storylines. It’s no wonder the casual sports fan is befuddled when cameras cut to the French countryside every summer.

If you’ve just gotten the bug for riding road bikes , or have always been puzzled by the daily deluge of Tour de France news, this beginner’s guide is for you. We’ll cover the fundamentals of how this “game” is played — and there are many ways to play it and win. Also, we’ll delve into cycling’s paradoxical balance between being simultaneously a team sport and an individual sport. That plays into the finer points of strategies and tactics. Finally, most importantly, we’ll explain how to successfully, enjoyably watch the Tour, without dying of boredom during a six-hour flat stage across plains of central France.

If you’re a seasoned cycling fan, please feel free to share this with your curious in-laws who always email you questions about pelotons, yellow jerseys, and more. We’ve all been there before!

The 2022 Tour de France will be raced from July 1st to July 24th over the course of 21 stages with two rest days along the way.

How The Tour de France Works

How to win the race.

• How To Win If You Don't Win

Points Classification - Green Jersey

King of the mountains classification - polka-dot jersey, other prizes, best young rider classification - white jersey, best team classification - yellow helmets, most aggressive rider - red number, an individual sport with teams - or vice-versa, three tips to watch like a pro.

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21 stages over 24 days, 3,328km distance traveled (2,067mi because America), and over 48,530m of total elevation gain. A very casual month of cycling in Europe, to say the least.

The Tour de France has A LOT of moving parts; it is not simply an individual effort to cross the finish line first. Racing the Tour de France requires a combination of teamwork, pure athleticism, and strategy if you plan on wearing that yellow jersey afterward. 

The Tour consists of 22 teams, with 8 riders per team and a whole lot of supportive efforts to make sure the racers and their equipment are all performing to the best of their capabilities. Before 2018, the Tour allowed 9 riders per team; this was later reduced to 8 to even the playing field and maximize rider safety.

Simply put, out of 176 riders during the 2022 Tour de France, the one rider with the lowest total time after all 21 stages will be crowned the champ. But there's much more to it than that, so let's dive in. 

This is the easy part: The famed yellow jersey. The individual rider who has the lowest combined time over the course of the race’s 21 stages wins the overall race — the General Classification (GC). Every stage is timed start to finish, and essentially every kilometer counts toward the final prize.

That yellow jersey was not awarded in the early days of the Tour, which started in 1903. It was first awarded in 1919, in a stroke of marketing brilliance. The yellow jersey matched race organizer l’Auto’s newspaper color. Since then, it’s been the Tour’s iconic hue.

Every day, the current leader of the race wears the yellow jersey, based on cumulative time taken at the end of the prior stage. For the majority of the 21-day race, it is easier and more efficient to ride in the peloton (the main group of cyclists). There are a few key moments when true GC contenders can gain time to win the yellow jersey, but for the most part, they prudently wait in the bunch and save their energy.

In the early years, Tour organizers toyed with a points system to award GC, rather than a cumulative time. They still award points, just not for the yellow jersey. Read on to learn about the different points classifications.

Riders to watch: 2020 & 2021 winner Tadej Pogačar, Primož Roglič, Geraint Thomas, Jonas Vingegaard, four-time champion Chris Froome, and Rigoberto Uran.

[newsletter]

How to win the race if you don’t “win” the race

Here is one of the first ways that the Tour de France trips up beginner fans. Unlike a typical sport where “winning” is a singular goal and achievement, there are multiple secondary prizes on offer over the course of the race’s three weeks. Some teams and riders don’t even bother vying for the yellow jersey and instead focus their energies on these prizes. As is the case with the yellow jersey, each day, a rider wears one of these jerseys in the race as the current leader in that classification.

Colloquially known as the sprinter’s jersey, this award goes to the rider who scores the most points throughout the course of the race. Points are earned by finishing in the top-15 in a given stage. To tilt the classification in favor of “pure” sprinters (riders who tend to fall off the back on mountainous days), more points are offered in stages that the organizer deems to be “flat."

Plus, riders can earn points in mid-stage sprints that are usually stationed in towns to please the fans. These bonus sprints rarely decide the final green jersey, however.

Although this classification harkens back to the race’s early days, the green jersey was not introduced until 1953.

Riders to watch: Caleb Ewan, Fabio Jakobsen, Wout van Aert, Peter Sagan, Arnaud Demare, and Dylan Groenewegen.

There was a time when the Tour de France didn’t even bother climbing major mountain ranges like the Pyrenees and Alps. Thankfully, race director Henri Desgrange sent riders over the Col du Tourmalet in 1910 and the rest is history.

The Tour began designating a “King of the Mountains” in 1933 to honor the rider who collects the most points over the course of the race on categorized climbs. The categorization system is opaque and subjective — sometimes a climb’s categorization is influenced by where it falls during a stage’s route.

What you need to know is that there are five categories: 4-1 and hors category (HC), which is French for “beyond categorization.” Riders get more points on harder climbs — those with lower numbers or HC. Riders also get more points on mountaintop stage finishes, especially if they win the day.

The gaudy polka-dot jersey came to be in 1975. Why polka-dots? As is usually the case with the Tour, it was all about the money! At that time, Chocolat Poulain was a race sponsor, and (you guessed it!) it packaged its bars in distinctive polka-dot wrappers.

Riders to watch:  This one is tough to call until you reach the high mountains. Often anyone who’s in contention for the yellow jersey is a good bet.

This classification works the same way as the yellow jersey but only riders under 26 years of age. On rare occasions, like 2019, a phenomenal young rider will win both the yellow and white jerseys. 

Riders to watch: Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard.

[button] SHOP ROAD APPAREL [/button]

Although this classification has been around since 1930, it usually doesn’t matter to the casual fan and only rarely influences how riders or teams race. Like the yellow or white jerseys, this award is given based on overall time in the race. Each team tabulates the finish times of its three best riders on every stage. At the end of the race, the team with the lowest overall time wins this prize. The team that leads this classification usually wears yellow helmets, helping them stand out in the bunch. [button] SHOP ROAD HELMETS [/button]

Also known as the Combativity Award, this is likely the most mysterious prize in the Tour. In every stage (except time trials), a jury decides which rider in the race was most aggressive — usually, that means attacking a lot, gambling on a breakaway, or being French. Late in the broadcast, the announcers usually note which rider was given the combativity prize. If you spot a rider with a red number on their jersey, then he was named most aggressive the stage prior. At the end of the Tour, one rider gets the Super Combativity award.

Why are there teams if only one rider can win the Tour de France? As alluded to earlier, professional road cycling has a curious tension between the team and the individual. The key thing to remember is this: If a cyclist wins one of the prestigious classification titles, or even holds a leader’s jersey for a single stage, it is viewed as a team success. Yes, only one guy ends up standing on the podium, but the overall team culture promotes this idea, provided the team isn’t dysfunctional.

So if only one rider “wins,” what do the other seven riders on the team do to contribute to this elusive concept of teamwork? Here are some ways a group of individual cyclists comes together as a team to support their leader:

• Getting into breakaways (small groups that attack off the front of the main group) — that way his team doesn’t have to work to chase the breakaway down.
• Chasing down breakaways — to give the leader a chance to win or place well.
• Retrieving food and water for the leader or other key riders — bottle service on the road … what could be more luxurious!
• Pacing the leader up key climbs — although drafting isn’t as crucial, it can be a psychological advantage to have a teammate at your side.
• Pacing the leader back to the peloton in the event of a crash, mechanical, or split in the group — without teammates to draft, it might be nearly impossible to rejoin the peloton on some fast-paced stages.
• Giving the leader their bike or a wheel in the event of a mechanical — this can often be quicker than waiting for a team car or neutral support to show up with a spare.

Strategies and tactics

So we just covered some simple tactics riders can employ to help their team leader. How does it all fit together? Teams often settle on strategies prior to the race. They assess their strengths and weaknesses and find ways to succeed — whether that means winning the yellow jersey or simply wearing a King of the Mountains jersey for just one stage. Here are some examples of how teams might set their strategies, and how they might execute them with the right tactics:

Team with a top GC rider: Naturally, they’ll try to win the yellow jersey. This means surviving inconsequential flat and rolling stages to conserve energy for key mountain stages and individual time trials. The leader’s teammates will try to get into breakaways so that their team won’t spend energy chasing all day. They’ll also set up the team leader to attack on key climbs or at least follow his rivals to defend his position.

Team with top sprinter: To win the green jersey, they’ll target the flat stages. This means controlling the peloton and chasing down breakaways to set up a sprint finish. Like the GC team, they might also put a rider in the breakaway to ease the burden on the team, forcing rival sprint teams to chase. On mountain stages, the team might have to call riders back from the peloton to help pace their sprinter to the finish so he doesn’t get time-cut.

Team with top climber: Winning the King of the Mountains (KOM) classification is often less of an obvious team effort. These pretenders to the throne tend to be opportunistic. However, it is advantageous to have a teammate in the breakaway on a key mountain stage when points are up for grabs. Also, when defending the polka-dot jersey, teammates can contest the climbs and finish ahead of KOM rivals to spoil their attempt to take over the classification lead by scoring points.

Smaller team without top leader: These are the teams that always try to put a rider in the day’s breakaway. This could earn them the Combativity Prize, or if they play their cards right, a stint in a leader’s jersey or even a stage win. This strategy requires constant attacking in the early kilometers of the race — something most fans rarely see on the broadcast. It is a hectic, painful part of the stage, but it’s crucial in establishing a break. Meanwhile, a breakaway rider’s teammates might patrol the front of the peloton to disrupt the chase.

Now that you understand the basics of how the Tour de France is raced, what do you, the new cycling fan do? NBC Sports boasts about 350 hours of Tour broadcast, including live, primetime, and encore coverage. There are daily stages for three weeks. That’s a lot of cycling! Fortunately, you don’t have to put your life on hold to watch the Tour de France. There are some reliably important stages you can focus on to catch the key action.

Can’t watch daily? Pick the key mountain stages. There are usually about 5-8 key mountain stages when the overall race is won and lost. Most of them are summit finishes, and they’re split between France’s two key mountain ranges: the Alps and Pyrenees. The first few ordinarily come in stages 6-9 before the first rest day, and the second round is often scheduled for the final week of racing. Occasionally, another summit finish, such as Mont Ventoux in Provence, will be on the list of important stages.

Watching daily? Tune in when things really heat up. On most flat stages, you can wait until the final 20 kilometers to tune in and see the sprinters fight it out. Some rolling stages might be entertaining in the final 50-60 kilometers if late breakaways occur. On mountain stages, it’s best to start watching as early as possible because sometimes, crazy things happen on the day’s first climbs.

Watching a LOT of TDF? Look for the nuances. If you’re going to have the race on all day, every day, you’ll need to dig a little deeper to enjoy the subtleties of the race. Try keeping track of riders who are often making the breakaway. Watch the sprint teams work together — or not — to chase an escape. Who looks to have strength in numbers, and who is not present at the front of the race? Are the GC riders staying out of trouble or tail-gunning at the dangerous back of the peloton? Usually, at any given time in the race, any given rider is positioned where they are for a specific reason. Look for clues to sort out what is happening.

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How the Tour de France works

Bike racing can be dumb and confusing. Here's an explainer for your non-cycling friends this summer.

If you read this website regularly, this article might not be for you. But if you find yourself watching the Tour de France with friends and family this July who are just getting into cycling, this may be of use.

The Tour de France is complicated. Three weeks, flat stages, mountain stages, individual time trials, 21 winners but also one winner, and then other winners of other categories too? And a team wins? But also nobody really cares which team wins. Polka dots are involved somehow? And what on earth is a horse category?

There are a million and one “What the Tour de France Jerseys Mean” stories out there as most bicycle websites have a top-secret Search Engine Optimization chophouse in the shed out back because many people are googling that phrase every summer. We don’t have such a chophouse, and this isn’t the start of one. What we do have are many friends who just watched Tour de France: Unchained and have lots of questions.

If you, too, have such friends, feel free to send them this. We’re going to start basic and then go real deep.

How does the Tour de France work?

The simplest version: Each stage, one per day, is its own race. The whole Tour de France is a championship of sorts, totalling up those daily races. The yellow jersey is the champion, and the winner of it is decided by the fastest total time, not points.

To win the Tour de France, a rider must complete the 21 days of racing in the least amount of time. Each rider’s total time for each day, or stage, is added up as the race goes on, and whoever has the lowest rolling total after a given stage wears the yellow jersey ( maillot jaune , in French), the next day. This rolling total is called the General Classification, or GC, or even sometimes the overall classification. Many words. Same thing.

If you have the lowest cumulative time at the end of the final stage, and thus are the best-placed rider on the General Classification, you win the Tour de France. You get a big stuffed lion, some champagne, and stand on a podium on the Champs-Élysées as the sun sets behind the Arc de Triomphe and do a speech thanking your teammates and family. Well done!

There are other things you can win along the way. Each stage has a winner, too. Winning a stage is a huge deal, particularly for those riders who don’t have the right body type (AKA, skinnier than the already skinny average rider) or just aren’t quite good enough (sad) to fight for the yellow jersey.

What about the other jersey colors?

The yellow jersey, as mentioned, is for the overall winner, and whoever is leading throughout the race. Most other riders are in the jerseys of their teams, or sometimes a special jersey for being a national champion of their country. There are three exceptions.

The green jersey ( maillot vert ) is the points jersey. The green jersey is won by whoever has the most points at the end of the race, and during the race it’s worn by whoever has the most cumulative points so far.

Points are awarded at finish lines, particularly flat finish lines, as well as at little fake finish lines in the middle of each stage, called intermediate sprints. Riders sprint for these finish lines, real or fake, and accumulate points. There are more points available on flat stages – which favor sprinters – than there are on mountain stages. For that reason, it is sometimes known as the sprinter’s jersey, because that tends to be the type of rider who contests for it.

For mountain stages, there are a different type of points available. These are for the King of the Mountains competition, and those points accumulate to determine who wears the polka dot jersey ( maillot à pois ) . The points for this jersey are awarded in roughly the same way as for the green jersey, except riders gain points by reaching the tops of mountains ahead of their competitors. The bigger the climb, the more points on offer, with the highest amounts for summits that also serve as finish lines for a stage.

You’ll see riders targeting this competition engage in seesaw battles over multiple stages in the mountains. One day, one rider will attack and take a big haul of points to go into the lead, and the next day someone else will do the same. Since it’s hard to attack multiple days in a row, riders have to pick the days they think offer the best chance for them to score points.

Finally, we have the white jersey ( maillot blanc ). This is for the best young rider. It is awarded in exactly the same way as the yellow jersey, but only riders under the age of 25 qualify. Lately, that has meant the yellow jersey and white jersey are often won by the same rider because the winners of the Tour have been so unbelievably young. A rider can’t wear two jerseys of course, and the yellow jersey takes precedence. So whoever is in second place in the young rider competition gets to borrow the jersey until the finish. This is true of all special jerseys; there is an order of importance that is adhered to.

Is cycling a team sport?

Yes and no. Mostly yes.

Only one rider wins the Tour de France. That rider’s team plays a crucial role, though. It is technically possible for a solo rider to win the Tour (if all seven teammates got sick, or something), but it is extremely unlikely. So it is a sport with collective team sacrifice but without collective team victory.

(There is a Teams Classification, where the times of the top three riders from each team are tallied up each day and then added up at the end of the race. The only teams that care about this are the ones that can’t win the yellow jersey. The general cycling public mostly ignore it.)

There are 22 teams in the Tour de France, each comprised of eight riders. Each team has corporate sponsors, and the most important of those sponsors make up the team name. Hence all the weird team names (e.g. what is a Soudal?)

Of those eight riders, each holds a different role. Precisely how these roles are divided out changes with each team based on that team’s goals in the race. To put it in soccer (football) terms, some teams rock up with three defenders, some might go with five.

Fundamentally, cycling is a team sport because of drafting.

So what is drafting?

Drafting is riding behind another rider, which saves a significant amount of energy. A rider who is drafting simply doesn’t have to pedal as hard as the rider in front because of wind resistance.

This is the premise upon which cycling tactics are built. Boiled down, cycling tactics are primarily focused on figuring out how to draft more than everybody else and then choosing the right moment to stop drafting and go it alone.

Drafting is so effective because wind resistance is the number one force a rider has to overcome. The faster a rider is going, the more wind resistance they face, which further increases the importance of drafting.

This is why mountains are so important to the Tour de France. When climbing mountains, riders are mostly overcoming gravity, not wind resistance. This makes drafting less effective. That means it’s easier to attack and separate yourself from the other riders – they can’t just follow in your slipstream, taking an easy ride.

On a flat road at high speeds, the second rider in a group may be using more than 30% less energy than the first rider. On a climb, that difference could be 5% or less. So if you’re the first rider and want to ride away from a second rider, probably smart to do so on a climb. Hence, the importance of mountains.

Are substitutions allowed?

Nope. If a rider has to leave the race due to injury or illness, the team continues on without a replacement.

What’s a breakaway and why do they exist?

A breakaway is a group of riders, anywhere from one to a few dozen, that splits off from the front of the main peloton. They literally break away by sprinting away to establish a gap and then staying ahead further up the road from the rest for some period of time. The purpose of this changes depending on the stage in question and the dynamics of the race, but most breakaways fall into one of three categories.

Doomed/French: Some stages of the Tour de France are almost impossible for a breakaway to win. These are flat, fast sprint stages, where the larger peloton has a big advantage (more riders = more drafting = more speed). Yet a breakaway will still split off. Why? These breaks are doomed.

They are generally full of lower-level teams, often French, that are just looking for TV time. They are a rolling billboard for the day, and will almost surely be caught before the finish. Yet they continue to try. We salute them.

Optimistic: There are other stages where a breakaway has a good chance of survival to the finish line, so any rider in the break has a chance at a stage win. These are usually hilly or mountain stages deeper into the race, where the contenders for the yellow jersey have little incentive to keep the peloton together. At this point in the race, many riders are far behind in the GC, so they are allowed to form a breakaway and fight for a stage win. They are no threat to the yellow jersey.

The key subtext here is that winning a Tour de France stage is incredibly difficult. Most riders will never do it. And for most riders, winning out of a breakaway is the only way they will win a stage. Competing with only a small handful of other riders instead of nearly 200 improves their odds.

On these days, the precise makeup of the breakaway is carefully monitored by the leading teams. They want the right mix of riders – nobody close to the yellow jersey will be allowed. Once the right mix is found (this can take more than an hour of hard racing), the break is “allowed” a bit of a time gap.

There is a rhythm to these sort of Tour de France stages. After the start, the fight for the breakaway begins. That small, manageable group is then left to dangle in front of the peloton for much of the day, before being chased back (or sometimes not) before the finish. Traditionally, the peloton and the breakaway call a bit of a truce in the middle hours of a long stage before the chase resumes near the finish, the breakaway is caught, and the peloton fights for the stage win.

Earned: On the hardest stages, often those with big mountains, a breakaway might simply be the strongest riders in the race riding away from everybody else. This is hardly even a breakaway anymore, since by definition a breakaway is breaking away from the focal point of the race. But if the top contenders are all breaking away together, they are still the focal point of the race. In this scenario, everyone else is just dropped .

A rider is leading everybody, but they are apparently not winning. What gives?

Being first is generally a bad thing in bike racing. Right up until the finish line, that is.

The rider at the front of the peloton at most points throughout the Tour de France is quite intentionally not winning. They are working for somebody else. This comes back to drafting. Whoever is on the front of any group is doing an extraordinary amount of extra work. They are pedalling way harder than everybody behind them. When things really heat up, they will already be tired and will get dropped. That means that the position on the very front is a sacrificial one. Any rider who finds themselves there long before the finish is doing a job for their leader.

What’s the deal with time trials?

Ahh, contre la montre . Against the clock. That’s what time trials are.

Most Tours de France have at least one time trial. A time trial is a stage where riders start one at a time, rather than as a large group, and are timed from start to finish. They call it the “race of truth” because there is no drafting, no teamwork, just a rider against the course.

Since the Tour de France is won by accumulating time, these stages are always important to winning the yellow jersey.

Team time trials are also a thing. These fall under the same rules but each team is set off as a group. They work together (drafting!) to get to the finish as quickly as possible.

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How do Tour de France time cuts work?

Any riders finishing too far behind are eliminated from the race - we look into the details of the complicated system

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Tour de France mountain stages are brutal, no matter how fast you’re riding them, but they're made even more challenging by the dreaded time cut - but how does the time limit actually work? 

The most decisive stages in the French Grand Tour are often even tougher for those struggling at the back of the race than they are for the climbers going full gas at the front. 

Varied nature of Tour de France stages are what makes cycling great, with each day suiting either the sprinter, the climber, the puncheur, the time trialist, the breakaway specialist - but never all five at the same time.

Mountain stages are unsurprisingly best suited to the sinewy, lightweight climbers who are able to maximise their watts per kilogram to get over the steepest gradients.

These riders are often battling for stage wins on famous climbs like Alpe d’Huez and Mont Ventoux, or are desperately clinging onto their general classification times and trying to avoid any time losses as the road turns towards the sky. 

But for the heavier riders, particularly the sprinters, every mountain stage is its own hazard, as they face threat of elimination from the Tour de France if they aren’t able to finish the stage within the time limit.  

If you’ve ever seen riders at the bottom of the results with the letters OTL (outside time limit) next to their name, you may wonder how and why. 

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The time limit exists essentially to keep things fair across the Tour de France, so riders can’t finish hours behind the stage winner in order to recover more, giving them an advantage over rivals who may have ridden harder consistently. 

Cycling Weekly has taken a dive into the rule book to explain the complicated time cut system at the Tour de France:

How do Tour de France time limits work? 

The UCI rule book actually has very little detail about how time cuts work.

Under regulation 2.6.032 covering stages races the rules state: “The finishing deadline shall be set in the specific regulations for each race in according with the characteristics of the stage.

“In exceptional cases only, unpredictable and of force majeure [unforeseeable circumstances], the commissaires panel may extend the finishing time limits after consultation with the organisers.

“In case riders actually out of the time limit are given a second chance by the president of the commissaires panel, all points awarded in the general classifications of the various secondary classifications shall be withdrawn.”

In short, it’s up to the race organisers to decide the time cut based on how difficult a stage is.

The race jury is allowed to let riders to continue even if they finish a stage outside the time limit, but only in exceptional circumstances. 

This actually happened in the 2018 Tour on the short stage 11 to La Rosière, won by Geraint Thomas.

A number of the best sprinters were eliminated, including Mark Cavendish and Marcel Kittel, but Rick Zabel was allowed to continue the race, despite finishing three seconds outside the limit. 

Zabel was allowed to continue because he had suffered a mechanical on the final climb, which prevented him from making the limit. 

For any riders allowed to continue the stage race after being outside the time limit, they must forfeit any points they scored in the King of the Mountain or the points classification during the entire race - this prevents riders attacking hard early on the stage to score points and then deliberately dropping back to recover more than their rivals. 

How the time cut is calculated? 

The time limits for each stage are set by the organiser of the Tour de France, ASO, and must be set out in the ‘Road Book,’ which is the detailed guide to each stage released before the race starts. 

For each stage, the first thing the organisers need to do is decide the difficulty of each stage, by giving it a score from one to six, also known as the coefficients. 

As examples, the opening stage in Brittany was scored a two, the sprint stage from Redon to Fougères on stage five was given a one, the stage five time trial was given a six, while the summit finish in Tignes on stage nine was a five. 

Table of stage difficulties in the 2021 Tour de France 

After deciding the difficulty of a stage, the time cut is then decided by how fast the stage winner actually rides the stage, using their average speed as the benchmark.

So for example, on a stage with a level one difficulty, if the stage winner rides at an average of 36km/h or less, the time cut is set at four per cent of the winner’s time. 

But on the same stage, if the winning rider holds an average speed of 50km/h, the time cut increases 12 per cent.

The time cut then extends as the stages get more difficult, so on a level four stage, such as the Mont Ventoux stage in the 2021 Tour, the riders are allowed to finish seven per cent slower than the stage winner if the speed is 30km/h or less, all the way up to 18 per cent if the speed is over 40km/h. 

In this year's Tour, on stage nine to Tignes a number of riders were OTL as Ben O'Connor (Ag2r-Citroën) fought to the stage win.

The stage was a level five difficulty and O'Connor finished with an average speed of 32.596km/h, which means riders were allowed to finish 14 per cent slower than O'Connor's time of 4-26-43, making the cut-off 37-20. 

While Mark Cavendish fought hard to finish 1-31 inside the cut,  Nic Dlamini (Qhubeka-NextHash) was almost an hour outside the limit and was eliminated, while Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) finished 41 minutes behind the winner and was also sent home.  

The Tour de France time cuts for a level four difficulty stage

ASO also has its own rules for reinstating riders who are outside the time limit, as the race jury has power to allow a rider to continue even if they don’t make the time cut.

The rules state: “The commissaires’ jury may in exception cases allow one or several particularly unlucky riders to be reinstated in the race, after informing the race directors.”

But the jury must consider four factors when reinstating a rider - the average speed of the stage, the point at which the accident or incident occurred (if there was one), the effort made by the delayed riders, and any possible blockage of the roads. 

There is one particularly memorable case of riders being reinstated after finishing outside the time limit in the 2011 Tour, when Mark Cavendish was among a group of 88 riders who finished outside the time limit, but were later reinstated by the race jury. Under today's rules, Cavendish would have been stripped of all of his green jersey points for finishing OTL, and most likely would not have won the jersey. 

He was also docked 20 points in the green jersey competition, which he was still able to win. In the 2016 Vuelta a España , 93 riders also failed to make the time cut on stage 15 only to be allowed to continue.

>>> Peter Sagan set to sign for Team TotalEnergies after Tour de France, according to report 

It was a brutal 118km stage, raced at an average of 40km/h and lasting just two hours and 45 minutes.

But by the finish, the main peloton of 93 riders finished outside the limit of 31-24, with the group finishing in 52-54.

The jury decided to reinstate all of the riders, so the race didn’t have to continue with just 71 riders remaining. 

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Alex Ballinger is editor of BikeBiz magazine, the leading publication for the UK cycle industry, and is the former digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter, then as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output, and now as the editor of BikeBiz. Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) Alex covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers.  Away from the desk, Alex can be found racing time trials, riding BMX and mountain bikes, or exploring off-road on his gravel bike. He’s also an avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.

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What do the Tour de France leaders jerseys mean? Yellow, green, polka dot and white jerseys explained

How to win the Tour de France general, sprint, mountains and youth classifications

POOL LEQUIPPE/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images

Colin Henrys

To a first-time viewer, the Tour de France can be a minefield. The winner is not simply decided by which rider crosses the finish line first in Paris.

How can a rider win multiple stages and not wear the yellow jersey? What is that polka dot jersey about? And what's with all the jargon they use?

Here’s our full guide to how the Tour de France is won: the classifications, the jerseys and the previous winners.

Tour de France classifications explained – what do the different jersey colours mean?

The Tour de France consists of four classifications that individual riders can win. The different classifications are signified by coloured cycling jerseys :

• The general classification (GC) – yellow jersey
• Mountains classification – polka dot jersey
• Points classification – green jersey
• Young rider classification – white jersey

The leader of each classification at the end of each stage wears the jersey on the following day.

If they continue to lead, they continue to wear the jersey until someone knocks them from the top of the classification. The leader of the classification at the end of the race is the overall winner of that particular classification.

There is also a team classification, but no coloured jersey is awarded for this.

What is the Tour de France general classification (GC)?

The general classification is the oldest and most coveted classification in the Tour de France, and is led by the rider with the shortest cumulative time.

Each rider’s time is recorded on every stage and the GC ranks the entire field. The leader of the general classification after the final stage in Paris is the overall winner of the Tour de France.

Tour de France yellow jersey explained

The GC comes with the coveted yellow jersey – or maillot jaune in French – which is worn by the leader of the classification until their overall cumulative time is bettered by another rider at the end of a stage.

The yellow jersey then passes on to the new leader of the GC, and so on.

Previous Tour de France winners

Jonas Vingegaard (Team Jumbo-Visma) won his first Tour de France in 2022, beating Tadej Pogačar (Team UAE Emirates), winner of the previous two editions of the Tour de France.

Egan Bernal's success in 2019 marked Team Ineos-Grenadiers' (formerly Team Sky) seventh Tour de France title in eight years.

Geraint Thomas won in 2018 and Chris Froome claimed four editions before that, after Bradley Wiggins had set the ball rolling in 2012.

Since the beginning of the Tour, four riders have won the general classification five times: Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.

Meanwhile, Fabian Cancellara is the rider who has worn the yellow jersey for the most days without ever winning the Tour (29).

Julian Alaphilippe held the jersey for 14 days in 2019, but fell away in the general classification in the final few stages.

Tour de France mountains classification

What is the mountains classification.

The mountains classification was introduced in 1933 as a secondary competition within the Tour de France.

The first riders to reach the top of categorised climbs in the Tour are awarded a certain number of points according to their position across the summit.

The climbs are categorised by a number, from 1 (difficult) to 4 (least difficult) based on factors such as the climb’s length and gradient.

Climbs that are more difficult than category 1 are called h ors catégorie – "a class of their own" in French.

Hors catégorie climbs carry the most points. Summit finishes – stages that finish atop a climb – and category 1 climbs are the next most lucrative followed by category 2 and so on.

The first rider to reach the Col de la Loze, the highest peak of the 2023 Tour de France, on stage 17 will earn double points.

The rider with the highest cumulative points total leads the mountains classification and wears the polka dot jersey. The exception is if they are also leading another classification, such as the general. In that case, the second rider in the rankings wears the jersey.

At the end of the Tour, the overall winner of the classification is the King of the Mountains.

Tour de France polka dot jersey explained

The mountains classification is signified by a white jersey with red polka dots (known as the polka dot jersey or maillot à pois ).

Vicente Trueba was the first winner of the King of the Mountains competition in 1933. The polka dot design wasn't introduced until 1975 when Bernard Thévenet won the classification.

Previous Tour de France mountains classification winners

Jonas Vingegaard added the King of the Mountains jersey to his maillot jaune in 2022.

Tadej Pogačar took the mountains classification in 2021 and 2020, following Romain Bardet in 2019 and Julian Alaphilippe in 2018.

Another Frenchman, Richard Virenque, won the title seven times in his career between 1994 and 2004, while both Federico Bahamontes and Lucien Van Impe have won it six times, from 1954 to 1964 and 1971 to 1983 respectively.

Eight cyclists have now won the mountains classification and general classification in the same year:

• Gino Bartali
• Sylvère Maes
• Fausto Coppi
• Federico Bahamontes
• Eddy Merckx
• Carlos Sastre
• Chris Froome

Pogačar, Bartali, Coppi and Merckx have all done it twice.

Tour de France points classification

What is the points classification.

The points classification was introduced in 1953 as an incentive for sprinters, with Fritz Schär being the first rider to win it.

The first 15 riders to complete each stage are awarded points, with the most points going to the first rider and the following 14 receiving successively fewer points.

More points are on offer for flat stages, again as an incentive to the sprinters. Riders can also gain points by winning intermediate sprints (sprints that take place at designated points part-way through a stage).

Tour de France green jersey explained

The leader of the points classification is indicated by a green jersey ( maillot vert ). Green matched the logo of the first jersey sponsor, La Belle Jardinière clothing store.

The overall prize is awarded to the rider with the most points at the end of the Tour.

Previous Tour de France points classification winners

The green jersey went to Wout van Aert in 2022 and Mark Cavendish in 2021.

In previous years the award had become synonymous with one man: Slovakian superstar Peter Sagan. He claimed the prize for a record-breaking seventh time in 2019.

Tour de France young rider classification

What is the young rider classification.

The young rider classification was introduced to the Tour in 1975. Classics great Francesco Moser was its first winner.

This year it applies only to cyclists born on or after January 1, 1998 (under the age of 26).

Just like the general classification, it’s calculated using each rider's cumulative overall time but is aimed at rewarding young riders in the early stages of their careers.

Tour de France white jersey explained

The youth classification is signified by a white jersey, and much in the same way as the other categories, the rider currently topping the classification wears it until someone else overtakes their lead.

Previous Tour de France young rider classification winners

Beaten into second in the GC, Tadej Pogačar was still the fastest young rider in 2022.

The Slovenian had become the sixth man to win both the white and yellow jersey in the same year when he rode to victory at the 2020 Tour de France, joining Egan Bernal (2019), Laurent Fignon (1983), Jan Ullrich (1997), Alberto Contador (2007) and Andy Schleck (2010). He then repeated the feat in 2021.

Pierre Latour won the young rider classification in 2018, while British twins Adam and Simon Yates were triumphant in the previous two years.

What is the Tour de France team classification?

The team classification has been part of the Tour de France since 1930 but awards no coloured jersey. Instead, the team is given race numbers with a yellow background, rather than white.

It’s not considered to be as important as the individual classifications. Teams don’t normally set out with an ambition to win it. But they may change their tactics during the race if they are in a good position to do so.

The team classification takes the time of each squad's top three finishers on every stage. The team with the lowest cumulative time leads the classification.

Previous Tour de France team classification winners

Movistar Team has dominated the classification in recent years, topping the team rankings in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020. This is despite none of its riders winning the Tour in those years.

Generally, the team with the rider leading the Tour will be more inclined to sacrifice teammates to protect the individual's lead, making winning both the individual and team classification – as Team Sky did in 2017 – a rare feat.

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• Tour de France

How does a Tour de France team work?

From the domestiques to the massage therapists, every Tour de France team is made up of a million moving parts, any one of which could derail months of work.

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It takes much more than one supremely talented skinny man to win the Tour de France . That man matters, certainly, but Chris Froome would probably not be a four-time overall yellow jersey winner if he also didn’t have the best, most well-funded team in the sport surrounding him. (Maybe two or three times in that case — give or take a salbutamol inhaler).

It’s easy to lose sight of the importance of teammates in cycling. The Tour goes out of its way to make itself seem like an individual competition, giving the race leader a bright yellow jersey that can be seen from helicopters and propping him up on a podium after each stage to wave flowers and a plush lion at the cameras.

But don’t fooled. Cycling is about much more than pure physical effort. Yellow jersey contenders need teammates to make sure they use their energy as efficiently as possible while climbing some of the biggest mountains in the world. And in perhaps no other sport are the support staff — the team directors, soigneurs, mechanics, and chefs — so critically important to the mission, too.

Every Tour de France team is an intricate machine that could collapse if any part of it fails.

Teams are made up of eight riders who do everything together

Race, eat, recover, and repeat, for 21 stages and nearly 2,100 miles over 23 days. It should be noted that not all riders are the same. There are 22 teams in the Tour de France, each organized under a sponsor. The sponsors tend to be banks, energy companies, and bicycle companies.

Here’s a brief explanation of the most common types of riders you will see on the road.

The yellow jersey contender: The competition for the yellow jersey is based on the leader of the general classification, which ranks all 176 riders by time. The riders on top of the general classification at the end of the Tour tend to be strong climbers and time trialists, because mountain and time trial stages usually create the biggest time gaps. Teams can have multiple yellow jersey contenders — like Movistar this year with Nairo Quintana, Mikel Landa, and Alejandro Valverde — or one clear boss — like Team Sky and four-time Tour winner Chris Froome.

Teams like Sky are rigidly mechanical and deadly. They come into the Tour with a plan and follow it to the letter. Teams like Movistar function much more loosely, seemingly making up the gameplan on the fly.

The domestique: A domestique is essentially a helper rider, someone who sacrifices his chances to climb up the general classification or win a stage so that a teammate can succeed. Domestiques will often gather water bottles from team cars to pass out among teammates, or ride in front of a team leader to cut the wind for him, or even give up his bicycle if the team leader suffers a mechanical problem.

Depending on the type of stage, anyone — including the yellow jersey contender — could act as a domestique. For example, on a flat stage when there isn’t much time to gain, a pure climber might do domestique duties so that sprinters who are capable of winning the stage can focus on riding their fastest. When the terrain gets bumpier, those roles reverse.

The sprinter: Many casual fans understand the importance of the yellow jersey, but nearly as prestigious among riders is the green jersey, which is awarded to the rider who earns the most points from stage wins and intermediate sprints. These riders tend to be the fastest riders in terms of pure speed, because the biggest chunk of Tour de France stages take place on relatively flat land.

Other important types of riders include the puncheur — all-around riders who are best at courses that are not too steep, and not too flat — and the time trial specialist — also a good all-around rider and valuable domestique , but particularly well-suited for riding alone against the clock. The best yellow jersey contenders — Chris Froome, particularly — are often great time trialists.

Again, the important thing to note is that, at certain points during the Tour, any of these riders could act as a domestique . Everyone has to make sacrifices for the good of the team.

The key to any tactic on the road is drafting

Every move is based the fact that it is much easier to ride behind someone than in front of someone. Scientists don’t quite agree on the extent, but the effect of sitting on another rider’s wheel is a 27 percent to 50 percent reduction in wind drag . That’s why when you watch the Tour de France, you’ll often see the best riders sitting third or fourth wheel within a line of seven of their teammates.

The long leadout trains are most easily seen on the flat stages, when teams will work hard to move their sprinters to the front of the peloton — the big bunch of 100-plus riders sticking close together — and keep his legs fresh before he bursts forward to challenge for the stage victory. Teamwork is perhaps most critical in the mountains, however. When Team Sky takes to the Alps, expect to see riders like Geraint Thomas, Egan Bernal, and Wout Poels near Chris Froome at all times, doing as much work as they can for their team leader for as long as their legs will hold out.

Riders like Thomas are often called superdomestiques for being yellow jersey-caliber riders who nonetheless are willing to sacrifice for a team leader.

Having a teammate or two on difficult climbs is often what makes a great rider a champion. For the last several years, for example, Thomas has acted essentially as Froome’s guard dog. Whenever a rival would try to attack by accelerating from Froome up a steep slope, Thomas would chase and take Froome with him on his wheel, keeping the attacks at bay while insuring that Froome doesn’t have to expend more energy than necessary.

A great team can also go to the front of the peloton and drive the pace relentlessly high, snuffing out any idea of an attack before it begins. Not only is Sky ridiculously talented top to bottom, it is also incredibly well coordinated, sharing the energy load as equitably as possible and driving all of their rivals mad.

But no team can be great without proper support staff

In 2014, I spoke to a member of BMC Racing’s staff , and this is what the team brought to support its nine riders:

Minimum 17 staff: four soigneurs , four mechanics, a general manager, two race directors; a cook, a press officer, a hospitality manager, a technical director, a doctor and a photographer. 10 vehicles: one truck, one bus, one sprinter, one van and six cars. 27 road bikes, 18 time trial bikes and 80 pairs of wheels. 2,000 bottles 400 musettes 1,000 energy bars 1,500 gel packs The kit per each rider, which includes the following: four bibs, four short sleeve jerseys, two long sleeve thermal jerseys, two short sleeve thermal jerseys, three knee/leg/arm warmers, two wind vests, two rain jackets, five pairs of socks, two helmets, two aero helmets, 10 cycling caps, three pairs of gloves

Just like a domestique rider is expected to do everything for the team leader, a soigneur is someone who takes care of all the little things behind the scenes. Technically, soigneurs are massage therapists, but they will also pack the day’s musettes — bags that contain food, water, and energy drinks — that riders will grab as they ride through designated portions of every stage. If a rider misses a feed zone, his body could give out at a critical juncture of the race.

Then there are the mechanics. They get up early to make sure every rider’s bike is properly tuned, and pack the roofs of their support vehicles so that if an important riders suffers a mechanical problem, his replacement ride will be the most easily accessible. The mechanics can often salvage a bad day. On Stage 9 of this year’s Tour, for example, Frenchman Romain Bardet suffered three punctured tires on the cobblestones, and yet was able to minimize his time lost because AG2R La Mondiale’s mechanics were quick to give him a new wheel when he needed it.

Communication among everyone is critical during each stage

A system of radios makes everything go:

Race radio: A one-way feed run by Tour de France organizers. Team cars are stuck behind cyclists with limited visibility, so they rely on race radio to relay information about which riders have been involved in crashes or are pulling away from the peloton. Race radio gives clearance to team cars to break procession order and speed ahead to aid their riders. Car-to-car radio: A channel open to only the two team cars on the course. Amidst so much chaos, the two race directors must be in constant contact, communicating who will help which riders, and whether to pull over and swap rider-specific equipment based on which rider is in which part of the peloton. Car-to-rider radio: A channel that puts race directors directly in the ears of team riders. This communication line has been open since the mid-90s, though some want to abolish it, claiming that it has eliminated spontaneity during stages in favor of robotic coordination and tactics. Riders like it, however, and teams insist that the radio is used almost entirely for communicating times and potential hazards ahead, and that little collusion takes place.

Each team has two cars. All of the cars follow the peloton according to the team rankings, from best to worst, meaning that currently the top-ranked team, Quick-Step Floors, has the No. 1 and No. 23 cars in the procession, and the worst-ranked team, Cofidis, has the No. 22 and No. 44 cars.

Positioning is important, because any car near the front will be able to get to a down rider much more quickly. The positioning of the vehicles also incentivizes teams to get into breakaways. If a domestique pulls far enough ahead of the peloton, a team car is given a go-ahead to break procession order and drive up near its rider. Doing so might help the team’s yellow jersey hopeful later if he has a problem or desperately needs a water bottle as the breakaway is roped in and the vehicle is asked to rejoin the procession.

From the chefs dedicated to giving riders the perfect mix of simple carbs, proteins, and probiotics to recover from yet another grueling stage, to the communications director who keeps the atmosphere loose on the team bus for three stress-packed weeks, a Tour de France team is made up of dozens of moving parts, any of which could be the difference between success and failure.

If everything goes right, all that’s left for anyone to do is hope that the top guy doesn’t screw it all up

That’s the point of it all, really: to eliminate all possible complications until all that’s left is hope that your meal ticket — your one amazing rider who you’ve dedicated months of preparation for — can win the whole thing on his own, with, say, an incredible solo effort up to La Pierre-St. Martin , or a strangling performance on the cobblestones of Northern France .

And if that meal ticket bonks, or worse, crashes out of the Tour yet again , then all that effort will, cruelly, have been for naught.

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The Ultimate Guide to the Tour de France 2022 King of the Mountains Competition

The mountains classification is always a great attraction of the Tour de France, especially when the fight for the general classification is not entertaining or exciting deep into the race. In this article, we will take a closer look at 2022 edition’s scoring system, the tactics for winning it and who are the favourites.

This year’s route is quite mountainous, with mythical passes such as Galibier, Alpe d’Huez or Hautacam. In this article , we analysed all these climbs featuring in the 2022 Tour de France, including projected climbing times and watts. In total, there will be:

• 61 categorised climbs;
• 7 Hors Catégorie climbs;
• 10 category 1 climbs;
• 6 category 2 climbs;
• 16 category 3 climbs; and
• 22 category 4 climbs,

for 985 available points.

Logically, the Hors Catégorie climbs are the most important, with a big difference over the rest. Not only does the first rider score twice as much as a first category climb, but there are points up to the eighth position, as you can see in the following graph.

Moreover, according to the rules, “in the event of two riders being equal on points in the best climber classification, the rider with the most first places at the summit of Hors Catégorie passes or climbs or summit finishes will be declared the winner”.

If a rider’s goal is the final mountain classification, there is little point in expending valuable energy racing for the points available on Category 3 or 4 climbs, and instead they should focus on the Hors Catégorie and Category 1 climbs. In any case, modest teams will compete for the points on these small hills in the first week to wear the jersey until the arrival of the high mountains and thus maximise their visibility and publicity impact on the race, as was the case last year when Perez and Schelling battled throughout the Grand Depart on the short hills in Brittany last year.

In addition, although they have almost no impact on the classification, topping a fourth category climb is rewarded with 200 euros, which is welcome among the cyclists with lower salaries.

As we can see in the graph, the Hors Catégorie and Category 1 climbs share 86% of the total points for the mountain classification. Five of the seven Hors Catégorie are in the two big Alpine stages, with finishes at Col du Granon and Alpe d’Huez. Those two stages will be key, as if a rider passes all the climbs first he can score 55 and 60 points respectively. However even in the event of the GC group eventually catching the breakaway on the four major climbing stages (11, 12, 17 and 18), four of the seven Hors Catégorie climbs are during the middle of the stage where it is much more likely that a breakaway will still be up the road to take maximum points.

Below you can see the exact distribution of points on each stage, with the heavy weighting in the Alps and Pyrenees.

As the key stages come in the first block of mountain stages, it is possible that many good climbers will not have given up on the general classification and will find it difficult to get into the breakaway. Therefore, contenders for the mountain classification who are not thinking about the general classification will have a competitive advantage, and may even score some points on stage 9, with two first category mountain passes, where a breakaway is expected to win. In these Alpine stages, the mountains jersey could also be a good target for riders who drop out of the general classification in the traps of the first week, such as the windy stages, the pavé or the finish at La Planche des Belles Filles.

It is clear that riders with ambitions for the KOM should not leave their homework for the Pyrenees, because the classification is likely to be very clear after Alpe d’Huez on stage 12 and with the GC group likely to be motivated on stage 18 to pace on Spandelles and Hautacam, reducing the likelihood of a breakaway winnig.

An anti-Pogacar system

Unlike in recent editions, this year there will be no climbs with double points, which will favour the KOM to be won by a climber who enters the breakaways in the high mountain stages. The sponsor of the mountains classification is probably interested in having its jersey worn by one of the best riders in the world, but last year’s scoring system was very distorting. In the last two editions of the Tour de France, Tadej Pogacar has won the KOM classification without it being a main objective for him, as he was busy fighting for the yellow jersey.

For example, last year there were double points for the second pass of Mont Ventoux and the finishes of Col du Portet and Luz Ardiden. These passes were already categorised as Hors Catégorie, but the organisers decided that they would distribute twice as many points as the other Hors Catégorie climbs (40 points for the first rider instead of 20). Poels, Woods and Quintana were fighting for several stages in this classification, but finally Pogacar won it “unintentionally” by winning in the Pyrenees on Col du Portet and Luz Ardiden, scoring 40 points on each climb. With the current scoring system, Wout Poels would have won the mountains classification in 2021 and Richard Carapaz in 2020, so it will be very difficult for Pogacar to repeat in 2022, particularly if he faces stiffer competition from his GC competitors on the mountain top finishes compared to last year.

The contenders

Pogacar (or whoever is the best climber in the race) will concentrate most of his points on the top finishes: La Planche des Belles Filles, Col du Granon, Alpe d’Huez, Peyragudes and Hautacam. In the best case scenario, assuming he wins those 5 stages, he would score 80 points, which might not even be enough to win the mountains classification given the amount of Hors Catégorie and Category 1 passes in the middle of the stages. Therefore, the chances of Pogacar winning the mountains classification for the third year in a row are very low.

The two riders who can set their sights on the mountains classification right from the start are local stars Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet (KOM at the 2019 Tour). Neither of them have the general classification as a target and they do have enough level to get over the big Alpine passes at the head of the race as shown by Pinot in his recent Tour de Suisse stage win and Bardet on Blockhaus in the Giro d’Italia.

Other French climbers like Warren Barguil (KOM at the 2017 Tour), Guillaume Martin (KOM at the 2020 Vuelta) or Pierre Rolland always go on the attack, but perhaps they lack the climbing level to win the Tour’s mountains classification if riders like Pinot and Bardet focus on the classification. After his display on Mont Ventoux and the Dauphiné, we also cannot forget Ruben Guerreiro (KOM at the Giro 2020), who in principle comes to the Tour with the objective of winning stages but may inadvertently pick up points by being in breakaways and fall into the KOM fight.

The final tier of favourites is made up of the general classification contenders who will change their objective after the complicated first week. Nairo Quintana and Michael Woods already tried in 2021 and could rethink this objective, but my outsider is Adam Yates. The Englishman comes to the Tour after passing Covid and it would be logical for him to suffer in the chaotic first week filled with wind and cobbles. With Thomas and Martínez for the general classification, Ineos could think about Adam Yates for the mountains classification and breakaway stages in the mountains, racing the Tour in a more offensive way without an outright GC favourite.

We hope you enjoyed this breakdown of the King of the Mountains classification at the Tour de France 2022. If you want to follow Raúl’s thoughts during the Tour, follow him on twitter @raulbanqueri .

What about Ruben Guerreiro? I see him as an outsider to the jersey as well after his performances the last month or so

Great read, thanks. Some time ago, with friends we were talking about this same issue, that KOM competition has kind of lost it’s identity and GC winner takes KOM as well. Would love to see a return of full on battle for polka dot jersey once again.

I may have jumped the gun on that one

Literally in the article: “After his display on Mont Ventoux and the Dauphiné, we also cannot forget Ruben Guerreiro (KOM at the Giro 2020), who in principle comes to the Tour with the objective of winning stages but may inadvertently pick up points by being in breakaways and fall into the KOM fight.”

Wonderful article. Really detailed and helpful to understand the differences between previous editions

Great article and that pie chart works wonders – why the hell doesn’t ASO present the points available like that! Thank you.

another stunning work. thanks Raül.

Best assessment I’ve read. Even as we enter stage 18 tomorrow this analysis still holds up. Thank you for making the KOM competition so much more clear and so much more interesting!

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