Jonas Vingegaard were dressed in the famed yellow jersey bestowed upon the chief of the Tour de France for nearly per week when the query got here.
It used to be now not a query about race technique, keeping up pace or the easiest way to stay his nerve, and his lead, via extra days of winding roads, sharp curves and punishing ascents. It used to be now not a query about health or shape.
Might he be extra relaxed, Vingegaard used to be requested, if he used to be in 2d position?
“It would be easier, yes,” he answered. “For sure.”
For all of the honor and appreciate it garners, for all it indicates in a recreation obsessive about information and element, the hallowed yellow jersey comes threaded with a stunning selection of inconveniences and drawbacks.
Teams would possibly spend hours the use of a wind tunnel, for instance, to best possible each and every element of a rider’s positioning, motorcycle and clothes. The praise, if the rider does neatly sufficient to transport into the lead? A brand new jersey from the race’s legit sponsor, Santini, that would possibly not have compatibility or carry out in the similar method.
“It’s a little bit different,” mentioned Tadej Pogacar, a two-time winner of the Tour and a typical wearer of the yellow jersey. “You’re not used to it.”
Then there are the tasks. After crossing the end line of every day’s level, the race chief is whisked via a dizzying collection of duties. He is interviewed by means of the Tour. He is interviewed by means of the race’s legit broadcast companions. He indicators a number of jersey facsimiles. He ascends the rostrum, at the side of a couple of different riders (a gaggle that incorporates the level winner and the leaders of a number of different classifications) for a presentation and pictures.
After that, he will have to navigate a gauntlet of newshounds and a video information convention. The ultimate prevent, and probably the longest, is at doping keep watch over. He is there till nature calls. “I would be an hour earlier at the hotel every day,” Vingegaard mentioned, if handiest he wasn’t within the yellow jersey.
Still, for each and every different rider, dressed in it for even an afternoon is the easiest honor, a first-line-of-the-obituary second. “My mind is exploding,” mentioned Yves Lampaert final 12 months, his eyes filling with tears, after taking a wonder victory within the race’s opening time trial. “I’m just a farmer’s son from Belgium.”
So universally understood is the mystique of the maillot jaune, because the jersey is understood in French, that there’s no wish to even specify the colour when relating to it. It is just, The Jersey. And at an tournament the place the colour yellow is inescapable — fluttering from flags, clinging to sweat-soaked spectators and selected for the lanyards placing across the necks of newshounds, organizers, VIPs or even cops — it’s if truth be told much less prevalent within the race itself. There, its unique colour, Pantone Yellow 1000, is supposed to be noticed in just one position: at the again of the race chief. (Race leaders had been identified to trip a yellow motorcycle or put on different yellow tools, too.)
“The fries are done!” A voice yells as an pressing beeping interrupts the bustle across the trailers and vans scattered out of doors the clicking heart in Moulins after Stage 11. Fabrice Pierrot chuckles and releases the clicking he’s status over. After slipping a small block of wooden into the mechanism to carry it open, he gingerly gets rid of a yellow jersey bearing the still-steaming emblem of Vingegaard’s group, Jumbo-Visma.
Pierrot is the Tour’s jersey printer, tasked with generating particular jerseys every day for the rostrum, in addition to for the following day’s race. Backstage on the podium, Pierrot takes notes from the riders, even though after twenty years at the process he can generally measurement them up by means of sight. “This generation, like Pogacar, never a word,” he mentioned. “I like working with them.” On at the moment, by the point Vingegaard is done, nearly precisely an hour after he rolled around the line, his group bus and the ones of each and every different group are lengthy long gone. Barriers are being dismantled, and the rostrum is being folded again right into a trailer. He is as he has been for days: wearing yellow, and pleased with it.
“It doesn’t fit as well, but it fits OK,” Vingegaard mentioned, a faint smile creeping onto his generally stoic face. “I prefer to be in The Jersey over my normal jersey.”