Классификация и майка лидера Тур де Франс

Classification that determines the winner of the Tour de France

The general classification of the Tour de France is the most important classification of the race and determines the winner of the race. Since 1919, the leader of the general classification wears the yellow jersey ( majo ʒon).

The Tour de France, and other bicycle stage races, are decided by totalling the time each rider takes on the daily stages. Time can be added or subtracted from this total time as bonuses for winning individual stages or being first to the top of a climb or penalties for rule infractions. The rider with the lowest overall time at the end of each stage receives a ceremonial yellow jersey and the right to start the next stage of the Tour in the yellow jersey. The rider to receive the yellow jersey after the last stage in Paris is the overall winner of the Tour. Similar leader's jerseys exist in other cycling races, but are not always yellow. The Tour of California used gold, the Giro d'Italia uses pink and the Tour Down Under uses an ochre coloured jersey. Until 2009 the Vuelta a España used gold; since 2010 the leader's jersey is red.

In the early years of the Tour de France the time was measured in minutes although cyclists were usually seconds apart, which meant several cyclists sometimes shared the same time. In 1914 this happened with the two leaders Philippe Thys and Jean Rossius. After the introduction of the yellow jersey in 1919, the general classification leaders shared the same time twice. First in 1929 three riders had the same time when the race reached Bordeaux. Nicolas Frantz of Luxembourg and the Frenchmen Victor Fontan and André Leducq all rode in yellow for Stage 18. In 1931, Charles Pélissier and Rafaele di Paco led with the same time for Stage 6. The organisers solved the problem of joint leaders by awarding the jersey to whichever rider had the best daily finishing places earlier in the race. The introduction of a short time trial at the start of the race in 1967 created distinctions down to a fraction of the second between riders' overall times, except for races which did not start with a time trial, such as the 2008, 2011 and 2013 editions. According to the ASO rules,
In 1980 Joop Zoetemelk did not wear the yellow jersey that passed to him when his rival, Bernard Hinault, retired with tendonitis. In 2015 there was no yellow jersey in Stage 7 after Tony Martin crashed in the previous stage. Martin had finished the previous stage after the crash (and officially retained the yellow jersey as a result), but had broken his collarbone in the crash and did not start Stage 7. Chris Froome became the overall leader with Martin's non start. In 2007 there was neither a yellow jersey at the start of the race nor a number 1; the winner from the previous year, Floyd Landis of the United States, failed a doping control after the race, and organisers declined to declare an official winner pending arbitration of the Landis case. On September 20, 2007, Landis was officially stripped of his title following the arbitration court's guilty verdict, and the 2006 title passed to Óscar Pereiro. In 2008, the runner up from the previous year, Cadel Evans, was given the race number "1" when the 2007 winner, Alberto Contador was unable to defend his title due to a dispute between the organisers ASO and his new team Astana barring that team from riding the Tour.

In 1978 the Belgian rider Michel Pollentier became race leader after attacking on the Alpe d'Huez. He was disqualified the same day after trying to cheat a drug test. In 1988, Pedro Delgado of Spain won the Tour despite a drug test showing he had taken a drug that could be used to hide the use of steroids. News of the test was leaked to the press by the former organiser of the Tour Jacques Goddet. allowing Óscar Pereiro to start the 2008 edition of Le Tour de France as the unqualified 2006 Tour champion. In 2007, the Danish rider Michael Rasmussen was withdrawn from the race by his team after complaints that he had not made himself available for drug tests earlier in the year. Rasmussen said that he was in Mexico, but there were reports that he was seen training in Italy. He later admitted doping for more than a decade. Maurice Garin won the Tour de France before yellow jerseys were awarded; but in 1904, he was disqualified as winner after complaints that he and other riders cheated. The allegations disappeared with the Tour de France's other archives, when they were taken south in 1940 to avoid the German invasion. But a man, who knew Garin as a small boy, recalled that Garin admitted catching a train part of the way. In 2012, Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles by UCI, following a report by the United States Anti Doping Agency revealing that Armstrong had systematically used performance enhancing drugs for much of his career, including all seven Tour victories.

The rider who has most worn the yellow jersey is the Belgian Eddy Merckx, who wore it 96 days. Only four other riders have worn it more than 50 days: Bernard Hinault, Miguel Induráin, Chris Froome and Jacques Anquetil. Until his records were revoked in 2012 Lance Armstrong was in 2nd with 83. Greg LeMond won the tour three times, Laurent Fignon won it twice and Joop Zoetemelk won it once, each of them have spent 22 days in the race lead. Among active riders Froome is in the lead with 59, Jonas Vingegaard has 27, Tadej Pogačar 21, Julian Alaphilippe, 18 and Geraint Thomas, 15. The rider to wear the Jersey in the most tours is Hinault with 8, which was every Tour he entered. Merckx, André Darrigade and Fabian Cancellara wore it in 6 and Indurain, Anquetil and Zoetemelk wore it in 5 Tours. The greatest number of riders to wear the jersey in a single edition of Le Tour de France is eight, which happened in 1958 and 1987.