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2012 Tour de France
Analysis: What Do Those Yellow Helmets Mean?
Eye-catching lids signify leading team, but not everyone is a fan
ByJen See
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When they crossed the finish line high on La Planche des Belles Filles, Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins both wore bright yellow helmets, though neither rider held the yellow jersey at the start of the day. That honor belonged to Fabian Cancellara. In fact, during the first week of this year’s Tour, all nine riders of Team Sky have worn yellow helmets each day. The bright yellow lids signify that Team Sky leads the team classification.

The sartorial addition is not Team Sky’s invention. Rather, the race organizer asked the teams to don the distinctive helmets in an effort to give the team classification more visibility during the race. The idea reportedly came at the suggestion of the competition’s sponsor, Digital.

According to the rule book, “the riders of leader of the teams classification will wear special back numbers with black numbers on a yellow background, and yellow helmets provided by the teams.” In recent years, the leading team has simply worn the bright yellow back numbers.

How is the team classification decided? The race organizers take the top three riders in the general classification from each team. Then, they add up the times. The team whose top three riders have the lowest combined time wins the prize in Paris. If the teams are tied on time at the end of the day’s stage, the top three riders’ stage placing decides the tie. In Paris, the number of stages the team has won provides the tiebreaker.

The yellow helmets are the “big innovation” of this year’s Tour de France, asserts the race website, but the idea is not entirely new. In the 1980s, long before helmets became mandatory, the team classification leaders wore yellow caps to designate their status. That tradition ended with the 1990 Tour de France, and the Z team of Greg LeMond was the last to wear the caps.

Team managers at Cofidis and AG2R–La Mondiale are among the supporters of the move to yellow helmets. “It’s a good idea,” said Vincent Lavenu of AG2R–La Mondiale. “It is a nice way to show the best team and to allow people along the road and in front of the television to see them well.” Certainly, the yellow helmets make Team Sky stand out in the field, but the move has met with some criticism. After Stage 1, Chris Horner told Bicycling’s Frankie Andreu, “From my point of view, it looks pretty ugly, [but] maybe other people like it.”



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