More Than One Rider Leading The General Classification
In the early years of the Tour de France, the time was measured in minutes. Although usually cyclists were seconds apart, sometimes several cyclists shared the same time. In 1913, before the introduction of the yellow jersey, this had happened with the two leaders, Philippe Thys and Jean Rossius.
After the introduction of the yellow jersey in 1919, the situation occurred twice. The first time was in 1929, when 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, although none held it to the finish in Paris. In 1931, Charles Pélissier and Rafaele di Paco were both leading with the same time.
The problem of joint leaders was resolved in later Tours by giving 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 - the prologue time trial - meant riders have since been divided by fractions of seconds recorded in that race, excepting the 2008 and 2011 editions. According to the ASO rules
- "In the event of a tie in the general ranking, the hundredth of a second recorded by the timekeepers during the individual time trial stages will be included in the total times in order to decide the overall winner and who takes the yellow jersey. If a tie should still result from this, then the places achieved for each stage are added up and, as a last resort, the place obtained in the final stage is counted."
Read more about this topic: General Classification In The Tour De France
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