White jersey White jersey Numerous cycling stage races award a white jersey to signify the current leader and overall winner of a certain competition, or to signify the best young rider in the race. The most prominent of these is the Tour de France, where the jersey is known as the "maillot blanc" and is awarded to the best-placed rider age under 26. The use of the white jersey to recognize the best young rider in a race is its most common use, though some tours award a white jersey for a different classification. Other stage races, besides the Tour de France,
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