La vie en jaune

Every year, around 200 riders take to France’s streets and mountains and only a few of them battle to win the yellow jersey.

Although the first Tour de France was organised in 1903, le Maillot Jaune hasn’t always been part of the race.

Maurice Garin, the first winner of ‘Le Tour’ wore a green armband. But as the race became more and more popular, journalists and riders complained they couldn’t pick out the leader. Spectators stated that the race wasn’t very interesting to follow.

So in 1919 race founder Henri Desgrange developed a plan to identify the top rider more easily.

At that time, Desgrange was editor of ‘L’Auto’, the newspaper that funded the race. He decided to design a jersey to mirror the yellow-coloured broadsheet, the paper was printed on.

That’s how, exactly 100 years ago, Eugène Christophe became the first rider ever to wear the yellow jersey.

Since then, le Maillot Jaune has been worn by almost 300 riders, from ‘5-time Tour winners’ to one-day breakaway riders.
One of the most iconic riders to wear the yellow jersey is Eddy Merckx.
Exactly 50 years ago, in 1969, Eddy won his first Tour de France. He won the Tour five times between 1969 and 1975 and wore the yellow jersey for an absolute record of 96 days.
Other 5-time winners are Bernard Hinault (75 days), Miguel Indurain (60 days) and Jacques Anquetil (50 days).

With all of the above, we decided to pay tribute to the rich history of the yellow jersey and designed a new T-shirt:
La vie en jaune (Life in yellow).
Grey T-shirt printed in thicker puff, available in sizes XS - XXL.

https://coiscycling.com/collections/mens-t-shirts/products/la-vie-en-jaune-mens-cycling-t-shirt