Trivia questions regarding an insignificant part of the Tour de France.?

Question

I have always wondered about the Yellow Jerseys, specifically with the winning team's name on the front. Do they actually print-up a Yellow Jersey for each of the teams entered in the Tour? Not only that, but do they then print-up enough of those (for each team) for the 3 weeks of the Tour? Or do they print them as the Tour progresses, when they start seeing who has the better chance of possibily winning each stage? And what happens to all of those extra jerseys? They could probably make a mint from selling those extra Yellow Jerseys that don't get used, but I bet that they are given to people affiliated with the Tour. Or do they destroy them? Does anyone know? I have always been curious about this.

Answer 1

The jerseys provided by the race organizers for each classification are printed each day. They bring the jerseys with blank white panels on the front and back. Portable sublimation printers are pretty small and only take a few minutes to put the team logo on. Other equipment like sunglasses, helmets, and bikes are a bit trickier, as they're provided by individual riders' sponsors. Companies like Giro and Oakley sponsor enough teams that they probably bring the yellow stuff to the race since odds are good that someone they sponsor will be leading at some point. The bikes most likely get painted and set up overnight.

Answer 2

Artm... (forget his full name) is correct, the yellow jersey is printed each day. If you noticed on the last day Alberto was all yellow. Like Artm... said, these were done up by the sponsors. Trek would have had to take one of the team bikes and repaint it. Giro would come up with an all yellow helmet, and so on. This was all done in a matter of a day or two and shipped to the TDF. If you think about it, it was not until Saturday that it was a fair certainty that Alberto had won the race - though I guess they could have all gambled a bit.

Answer 3

About "making a mint" from the extra yellow jerseys - you can walk into any Trek dealer and buy a yellow jersey with Discovery logo's for about $75.



I know that Armstrong used to spend hours and hours autographing jerseys and things after the tour, to hand out as thank-you's to sponsors etc. Not sure of their ebay value.

Answer 4

During Versus' broadcast of one of the later stages, they showed a guy in a truck with all the printing equipment. They do it as needed.



Remember that they need different sizes too, not just different team logos. If you watched the final team podium, you noticed that George Hincapie is a LOT taller than Alberto Contador.

Answer 5

I believe they are made in advance, and they do auction/sell the jerseys off that haven't been used. For example, I know that some of "Lance Armstrong's" yellow jerseys have been sold (I put that in quotes because he never wore them) for up to $10K. The ones he wears go for about twice as much