Since the first
Tour de France in
1903, there have been 1,994 stages, up to and including the 21st stage of the
2011 Tour de France. Since
1919, the race leader following each stage has been awarded the
yellow jersey ().
Although the leader of the classification after a stage gets a yellow jersey, he is not considered the winner of the yellow jersey, only the wearer. Only after the final stage, the wearer of the yellow jersey is considered the winner of the yellow jersey, and thereby the winner of the Tour de France.
In this article first-place-classifications before 1919 are also counted as if a yellow jersey was awarded. There have been more yellow jerseys given than there were stages: In 1913, there were multiple cyclists with the same leading time, and the
1988 Tour de France had a "prelude", an extra stage for a select group of cyclists. As of 2011, 1,994 yellow jerseys have been awarded in the Tour de France to 270 different riders.
Individual records
Key:<br />In previous tours, sometimes a stage was broken in two (or three). On such occasions, only the cyclist leading at the end of the day is counted. The "Jerseys" column lists the number of days that the cyclist
wore the yellow jersey; the "Tour wins" column gives...
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