Young rider classification Young rider classification Young rider classification () is a cycling jersey competition in multi-day stage race events, such as the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and many others, which awards the current leader by overall time for riders below the age of twenty-five years (or twenty-three years) depending on the race rules. Recipients are commonly known as the Best young rider. In stage racing, the fastest overall time of all riders below the age limit is awarded the cycling jersey, often the jersey color is white, in the same fashion the fastest time of all riders (regardless of age) is
1997 Tour de France lead the classification, and was identified with a polkadot jersey. The fourth individual classification was the young rider classification, which was not marked by a jersey. This was decided the same way as the general classification, but only riders under 26 years were eligible. For the team classification, the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added; the leading team was the team with the lowest total time. After Ullrich's domination of the 1997 Tour de France at his young age, it was believed that Ullrich would dominate the Tour de France for the next