The Maillot Jaune

The maillot jaune (jersey yellow literally translated) is one of the most distinctive, and treasured awards in all of sports. To wear the jersey for even one day has made many a riders career. It is of course awarded most famously (although other races have a version of the yellow jersey) at the Tour de France.

The Tour didn't originally award a colored jersey. A yellow jersey wasn't awarded until 1919 (the first tour was in 1903 -- Maurice Garin was the winner -- Eugene Christophe wore the first jersey in 1919) and was patterned in color after the paper that L'Auto was printed on (the newspaper that started the concept of the Tour to sell more newspapers).

It is an honor to wear the jersey and teams fight to defend the jersey. It is won through sweat and tears, sacrifice and dedication, suffering and talent. Noone has one it more times than Lance Armstrong (7) and no Frenchman has worn it since Bernard Hinault in 1985. It is worn by the best of the best.

Or -- you can join a bicycle tour and wear it on the podium after climbing one of the tour mountains! Hm -- I look pretty good in yellow!

Stage 7 from Barcelone to Andorre Arcalis was the first summit finish of the 2009 tour. Arcalis, at 1,940 meters, is part of a ski complex with 90 k of ski slopes. The entire stage covered 224 km with the final 10.6 km at an average uphill tilt of 7.1%. In tour parlance it is labeled an HC climb -- or hors category. Meaning it is so steep, so hard they no longer have a category level for. For the pro's this came after 1 Category 1 climb, 2 3's and 1 category 4.

For us mere mortals we climbed out from our Hotel (there are NO flat roads in Andorra -- you either climb or descend) and then headed out to a climb off of the route. It was a beautiful climb, wonderful scenery. We passed some men working on a rock wall and the one shouted out Allez (go go!) to me. So fun to have folks cheer you on! We descended from the mountain, through a small town, and started the climb right up to Arcalis. We were escorted the last 2 km by a Tour de France car and got to cross the finish line!

Friday was a good day for the French. Our French guides are well aware by now (based on our visit to the riders village in Girona) how into the Tour, how much I know about it, the history, the non-American or English speaking riders that I recognize/know, and generally how much more than Lance the Tour is to me. When one of the breakway riders attacked that small group our guide Eric searched me out to tell me excitedly that the rider that was soon to win the stage, Bryce Feillu, was a friend of his. I remembered his brother Romain, as he had been in yellow in a previous tour. So what a joy to cheer him on, hoping he would indeed hold off the other riders. He doesn't have a contract for next year yet so a win in the Tour was a HUGE win for him.

A Frenchman won the stage, his efforts got him into the Polka Dot jersey honoring the best climber, and a French team, Ag2R-La Mondiale was in the coveted yellow jersey. Nothing makes a French sponsor happier than a few days in Yellow!

So our first summit finish and a banner day for the French! Another perfect day!