Rules
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 or penalties for winning individual stages or being first to the top of a climb or for infractions of the rules. The rider with the lowest overall time at the end of each stage receives a ceremonial yellow bicycling jersey and the right to start the next stage, usually the next day, of the Tour in the yellow jersey.
The rider to receive the yellow jersey after the last stage in Paris, is the overall (or ultimate) winner of the Tour.
Similar leader's jerseys exist in other cycling races, but are not always yellow (the color being chosen by the individual race organizers). The Tour of California uses gold, the Giro d'Italia uses pink and the Tour Down Under uses an ochre-coloured jersey, as ochre is a colour strongly associated with Australia, particularly its desert regions. Until 2009 the Vuelta a España used gold; since 2010 the leader's jersey is red.
Read more about this topic: General Classification In The Tour De France
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