Why the jersey colours?

In article said:

Can anyone tell me why the green, white, and polka-dot jerseys are coloured that way? Is there an
historical reason, like there is for the yellow jersey?

TIA,

&roo

See <http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2003/tour03/?id=features/FAQ>, where all is revealed.

HTH,

KP

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Remove _me_ for e-mail address

"Andrew Swan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Can anyone tell me why the green, white, and polka-dot jerseys are coloured that way? Is there an
historical reason, like there is for the yellow jersey?

The green, I don't know. The organisation announced it (in 1953) as "the colour of hope", but I fail
to see the relation. The white because it is the colour of innocence and consequently of youth (in
1975, the year it was installed, many people thought that youth had something to do with innocence).
The polka-dot because it's first sponsor, Poulain (in 1975), was selling chocolate bars in white
wrappers with red dots.

Benjo Maso

Andrew Swan said:

Can anyone tell me why the green, white, and polka-dot jerseys are coloured that way? Is there an
historical reason, like there is for the yellow jersey?

cyclingnews.comtour03Open ↗

The colors are decided by the sponsor. Poulain wanted something that would stand out, and came up
with the poids rouges, Jaune was the color of the newspaper that originated the thing in1903 but
green...? All I know is it was created for the 50th aniversary of the Tour and the PTT (french post
telephone and telecomunication office) sold over 80 000 anniversary stamps
in1953."Andrew Swan" <[email hidden]> a écrit dans le message de
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Can anyone tell me why the green, white, and polka-dot jerseys are coloured that way? Is there an
historical reason, like there is for the yellow jersey?

TIA,

&roo

Ken Prager said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Andrew Swan

Quoted message said:

Can anyone tell me why the green, white, and polka-dot jerseys are coloured that way? Is there an
historical reason, like there is for the yellow jersey?

TIA,

&roo

See <http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2003/tour03/?id=features/FAQ>, where all is revealed.

That URL explains what the various colored jerseys signify, but not WHY they are those particular
colors (as opposed to blue, mauve, and pink & puce polka-dots).

"benjo maso" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Andrew Swan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Can anyone tell me why the green, white, and polka-dot jerseys are coloured that way? Is there
an historical reason, like there is for the yellow jersey?

The green, I don't know. The organisation announced it (in 1953) as "the colour of hope", but I
fail to see the relation. The white because it is

the

Quoted message said:

colour of innocence and consequently of youth (in 1975, the year it was installed, many people
thought that youth had something to do with innocence). The polka-dot because it's first sponsor,
Poulain (in 1975),

was

Quoted message said:

selling chocolate bars in white wrappers with red dots.

Benjo Maso

I thought the original sponsor was BP? That is the main corporate color for marketing.

Jay Hill said:

Andrew Swan said:

Can anyone tell me why the green, white, and polka-dot jerseys are coloured that way? Is there an
histor>> coloured that way? Is there an histor want to know why the jerseys are

the colours they are, and not particularly what they are awarded for:

The Maillot a Pois Rouges and Maillot Blanc have been explained by someone else in the tread.

The Green Jersey is the PMU sponsor's predominant colour: Green

PMU = PariMUtuel - Interactive betting mostly on horses

PMU have been an on-again, off-again sponsor of the jersey, but have sponsored it now for the
last 13 years.

The Green Jersey was first awarded in the 50th Anniversary edition of the Tour in 1953

On the presumption that you do in fact want to know why the jerseys are the colours they are, and
not particularly what they are awarded for:

The Maillot a Pois Rouges and Maillot Blanc have been explained by someone else in the tread.

The Green Jersey is the PMU sponsor's predominant colour: Green

PMU = PariMUtuel - Interactive betting mostly on horses

PMU have been an on-again, off-again sponsor of the jersey, but have sponsored it now for the
last 13 years.

The Green Jersey was first awarded in the 50th Anniversary edition of the Tour in 1953

The Yellow Jersey was first awarded in 1919.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

want to know why the jerseys are

the colours they are, and not particularly what they are awarded for:

The Maillot a Pois Rouges and Maillot Blanc have been explained by someone else in the tread.

The Green Jersey is the PMU sponsor's predominant colour: Green

PMU = PariMUtuel - Interactive betting mostly on horses

PMU have been an on-again, off-again sponsor of the jersey, but have sponsored it now for the
last 13 years.

The Green Jersey was first awarded in the 50th Anniversary edition of the Tour in 1953

On the presumption that you do in fact want to know why the jerseys are the colours they are, and
not particularly what they are awarded for:

The Maillot a Pois Rouges and Maillot Blanc have been explained by someone else in the tread.

The Green Jersey is the PMU sponsor's predominant colour: Green

PMU = PariMUtuel - Interactive betting mostly on horses

PMU have been an on-again, off-again sponsor of the jersey, but have sponsored it now for the
last 13 years.

The Green Jersey was first awarded in the 50th Anniversary edition of the Tour in 1953

The Yellow Jersey was first awarded in 1919. ical reason, like there is for the

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

yellow jersey? want to know why the jerseys are

the colours they are, and not particularly what they are awarded for:

The Maillot a Pois Rouges and Maillot Blanc have been explained by someone else in the tread.

The Green Jersey is the PMU sponsor's predominant colour: Green

PMU = PariMUtuel - Interactive betting mostly on horses

PMU have been an on-again, off-again sponsor of the jersey, but have sponsored it now for the
last 13 years.

The Green Jersey was first awarded in the 50th Anniversary edition of the Tour in 1953

On the presumption that you do in fact want to know why the jerseys are the colours they are, and
not particularly what they are awarded for:

The Maillot a Pois Rouges and Maillot Blanc have been explained by someone else in the tread.

The Green Jersey is the PMU sponsor's predominant colour: Green

PMU = PariMUtuel - Interactive betting mostly on horses

PMU have been an on-again, off-again sponsor of the jersey, but have sponsored it now for the
last 13 years.

The Green Jersey was first awarded in the 50th Anniversary edition of the Tour in 1953

The Yellow Jersey was first awarded in 1919.

It is yellow for the same reason as the Maglia Rosa in the Giro.

Henri Desgrange's journal, L'Auto was printed on yellow paper as La Gazzetta dello Sport is
printed on pink.

Whilst first awarded on July 13, 1919, and intended to be worn by the leader, Eugene Christophe on
the next day, Bastille Day, Christophe had to wait to don his prized jersey.

It wasn't ready when it came time to present it.

As an interesting aside, almost every time the Tour visits Marseille, something goes wrong.

How about trying to chronicle a few Marseille Disasters (apart from the one mentioned here)

Steven L. Sheffield said:

Ken Prager said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Andrew Swan

Quoted message said:

Can anyone tell me why the green, white, and polka-dot jerseys are coloured that way? Is there
an historical reason, like there is for the yellow jersey?

TIA,

&roo

See <http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2003/tour03/?id=features/FAQ>, where all is revealed.

That URL explains what the various colored jerseys signify, but not WHY they are those particular
colors (as opposed to blue, mauve, and pink & puce polka-dots).

I'm glad you agree with my interpretation of the query contained in the post.

I have tried to explain in another response in the thread, at least the two that have not been
explained by another poster

Lantern Rouge said:

As an interesting aside, almost every time the Tour visits Marseille, something goes wrong.

How about trying to chronicle a few Marseille Disasters (apart from the one mentioned here)

Stuart O'Grady was mugged there..

GK

On Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:46:28 +0000, Lantern Rouge wrote:

With my newsreader, the previous post I made in this thread appears badly mangled.

I really apologize if it has gone out to the NewsGroup generally in that state.

It happened with a previous posting I made a week or so ago and I'm trying to determine the reason.

"Lantern Rouge" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Jay Hill said:

Andrew Swan said:

Can anyone tell me why the green, white, and polka-dot jerseys are coloured that way? Is there
an histor>> coloured that way? Is there an

histor

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

want to know why the jerseys are

the colours they are, and not particularly what they are awarded for:

The Maillot a Pois Rouges and Maillot Blanc have been explained by someone

else

Quoted message said:

in the tread.

The Green Jersey is the PMU sponsor's predominant colour: Green

PMU = PariMUtuel - Interactive betting mostly on horses

PMU have been an on-again, off-again sponsor of the jersey, but have sponsored it now for the last
13 years.

The Green Jersey was first awarded in the 50th Anniversary edition of the

Tour in 1953

Indeed. And because PMU sponsored the maillot vert for the first time in 1991, I don't think the
decision of the organisation to make the leader in the points classification wearing a green jersey
had much to do with PMU. By the way, in 1953 the colour was a very pale green, The sleeves and the
collar were white.

Benjo Maso

g said:

Lantern Rouge said:

As an interesting aside, almost every time the Tour visits Marseille, something goes wrong.

How about trying to chronicle a few Marseille Disasters (apart from the one mentioned here)

Stuart O'Grady was mugged there..

GK

Good one.

I hadn't thought of that one though!!

I believe that all the jerseys have the colors they have because of the companies that sponsor
the jerseys.

Yellow jersey: Sponsored by Credit Lyonnais, if you go to their website,
creditlyonnais.comcreditlyonnais.comOpen ↗, you will see that their logo is yellow, like the color of a lion.
(Since they're from the city of Lyon, which Anglicized becomes lion.)

Green jersey: sponsored by PMU, Pari-Mutuel Urbain, the French equivalent of off-track betting.
Again, if you go to their website, you will see that the predominant color of their logo is green.

Polka-dot jersey: sponsored by Champion Supermarche, a holding company for a number of supermarket
and minimart chains in France, including Carrefour and Marche Plus. And if you look at their website
(www.champion.fr), you'll again find that they have red polka-dots on many of their products; in
fact they have a teddy bear wearing a white shirt with red polka dots (sound familiar?).

White jersey: sponsored by Aquarel, a spring water bottled by Nestle. If you go to their website
(www.nestle-aquarel.com), you will note that the bottle has a white label.

It's all about brand equity -- getting people to associate colors with products or the companies
that sell them. e.g. what do you think of when someone says "Big blue"? IBM. I bet if you had a
bicycle race in this country sponsored by IBM you'd find the leader wearing a blue jersey! In fact,
in the Giro d'Italia, the reason it's a pink jersey is that it is sponsored by La Gazzetta dello
Sport, which prints on, you guessed it, pink paper.

Hope this answers the question!

Regards,

Joe Hurley

Quoted message said:

"Andrew Swan" <[email hidden]> a écrit dans le message de
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Can anyone tell me why the green, white, and polka-dot jerseys are coloured that way? Is there
an historical reason, like there is for the yellow jersey?

TIA,

&roo

i have heard that the color yellow was the cheapest colored material as to why it was chosen. is
there any truth to that? "Joe Hurley" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I believe that all the jerseys have the colors they have because of the companies that sponsor the
jerseys.

Yellow jersey: Sponsored by Credit Lyonnais, if you go to their website,
creditlyonnais.comcreditlyonnais.comOpen ↗, you will see that their logo is yellow, like the color of a lion.
(Since they're from the city of Lyon, which Anglicized becomes lion.)

Green jersey: sponsored by PMU, Pari-Mutuel Urbain, the French equivalent of off-track betting.
Again, if you go to their website, you will see that the predominant color of their logo is green.

Polka-dot jersey: sponsored by Champion Supermarche, a holding company for a number of supermarket
and minimart chains in France, including Carrefour and Marche Plus. And if you look at their
website (www.champion.fr), you'll again find that they have red polka-dots on many of their
products; in fact they have a teddy bear wearing a white shirt with red polka dots (sound
familiar?).

White jersey: sponsored by Aquarel, a spring water bottled by Nestle. If you go to their website
(www.nestle-aquarel.com), you will note that the bottle has a white label.

It's all about brand equity -- getting people to associate colors with products or the companies
that sell them. e.g. what do you think of when someone says "Big blue"? IBM. I bet if you had a
bicycle race in this country sponsored by IBM you'd find the leader wearing a blue jersey! In
fact, in the Giro d'Italia, the reason it's a pink jersey is that it is sponsored by La Gazzetta
dello Sport, which prints on, you guessed it, pink paper.

Hope this answers the question!

Regards,

Joe Hurley

Quoted message said:

"Andrew Swan" <[email hidden]> a écrit dans le message de
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Can anyone tell me why the green, white, and polka-dot jerseys are coloured that way? Is there
an historical reason, like there is for

the

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

yellow jersey?

TIA,

&roo

"Joe Hurley" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I believe that all the jerseys have the colors they have because of the companies that sponsor the
jerseys.

Yellow jersey: Sponsored by Credit Lyonnais, if you go to their website,
creditlyonnais.comcreditlyonnais.comOpen ↗, you will see that their logo is yellow, like the color of a lion.
(Since they're from the city of Lyon, which Anglicized becomes lion.)

Green jersey: sponsored by PMU, Pari-Mutuel Urbain, the French equivalent of off-track betting.
Again, if you go to their website, you will see that the predominant color of their logo is green.

Polka-dot jersey: sponsored by Champion Supermarche, a holding company for a number of supermarket
and minimart chains in France, including Carrefour and Marche Plus. And if you look at their
website (www.champion.fr), you'll again find that they have red polka-dots on many of their
products; in fact they have a teddy bear wearing a white shirt with red polka dots (sound
familiar?).

White jersey: sponsored by Aquarel, a spring water bottled by Nestle. If you go to their website
(www.nestle-aquarel.com), you will note that the bottle has a white label.

It's all about brand equity -- getting people to associate colors with products or the companies
that sell them. e.g. what do you think of when someone says "Big blue"? IBM. I bet if you had a
bicycle race in this country sponsored by IBM you'd find the leader wearing a blue jersey! In
fact, in the Giro d'Italia, the reason it's a pink jersey is that it is sponsored by La Gazzetta
dello Sport, which prints on, you guessed it, pink paper.

Hope this answers the question!

Because the colours of the jerseys had been decided far before Credit Lyonnais, PMU, Champion and
Aquarel were in the picture, it's imposisble that the colours of those componies have played any
role - that is if we're upholding the traditional chronology of cause and effect.

Benjo Maso

"benjo maso" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Because the colours of the jerseys had been decided far before Credit Lyonnais, PMU, Champion and
Aquarel were in the picture, it's imposisble that the colours of those componies have played any
role - that is if

we're

Quoted message said:

upholding the traditional chronology of cause and effect.

Benjo Maso

Right. So go back to the original sponsor for each jersey. Here is a web page that may or may not be
accurate. It says that green was (in this case) chosen by the Tour org. Apparently is was red one
year at the request of the sponsor. I also recall a red "hot spots" jersey sponsored by "Catch"
(insect exterminators).

angelfire.comgreen.htmOpen ↗

The KOM jersey is different in that the classification has been around a lot longer than the
"pois" pattern.

angelfire.compolkadot.htmOpen ↗

These pages have links to cover all of the jerseys except for the red Catch jersey and the "combine"
jersey which was brought in (IIRC) so that Toshiba could sponsor a jersey. The red, white and
combine jerseys were all tossed a bit over 10 years ago but the white was brought back in memory of
Fabio Casartelli.

Do you think riders would object to Black Label beer or Black Flag bug spray? How about Clearasil?
skinsuits... hmmm

Joe Hurley said:

I believe that all the jerseys have the colors they have because of the companies that sponsor the
jerseys.

Yellow jersey: Sponsored by Credit Lyonnais, if you go to their website,
creditlyonnais.comcreditlyonnais.comOpen ↗, you will see that their logo is yellow, like the color of a lion.
(Since they're from the city of Lyon, which Anglicized becomes lion.)

Green jersey: sponsored by PMU, Pari-Mutuel Urbain, the French equivalent of off-track betting.
Again, if you go to their website, you will see that the predominant color of their logo is green.

Polka-dot jersey: sponsored by Champion Supermarche, a holding company for a number of supermarket
and minimart chains in France, including Carrefour and Marche Plus. And if you look at their
website (www.champion.fr), you'll again find that they have red polka-dots on many of their
products; in fact they have a teddy bear wearing a white shirt with red polka dots (sound
familiar?).

White jersey: sponsored by Aquarel, a spring water bottled by Nestle. If you go to their website
(www.nestle-aquarel.com), you will note that the bottle has a white label.

It's all about brand equity -- getting people to associate colors with products or the companies
that sell them. e.g. what do you think of when someone says "Big blue"? IBM. I bet if you had a
bicycle race in this country sponsored by IBM you'd find the leader wearing a blue jersey! In
fact, in the Giro d'Italia, the reason it's a pink jersey is that it is sponsored by La Gazzetta
dello Sport, which prints on, you guessed it, pink paper.

Hope this answers the question!

Regards,

Joe Hurley

Quoted message said:

"Andrew Swan" <[email hidden]> a écrit dans le message de
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Can anyone tell me why the green, white, and polka-dot jerseys are coloured that way? Is there
an historical reason, like there is for the yellow jersey?

TIA,

&roo