Racing cyclists wear clothing that makes them as aerodynamic as possible. But no one knows who will be wearing the yellow jersey until after the Prologue. So do they have the jerseys already made in advance for all of the riders? I mean, if you’re in the race, you certainly want a jersey that’s custom-fitted, right? And the same goes for the green and polks dot jerseys.
The answer to your question is yes, the jerseys are made in advance. In fact, you’ll note that the time trial jerseys (skin suits) are different than the regular jerseys worn in normal stages, so it’s even more complicated.
So,with 189 riders at the outset, there should be 189 X 6 = 1,134 jerseys made for the polka dot, green and yellow jersey wearers. Each rider needs to have 6 jerseys in advance of the race: 1 yellow jersey, 1 time trial yellow jersey, 1 polka dot jersey, 1 time trial polka dot jersey, 1 green jersey and 1 time trial green jersey.
This, of course, doesn’t include the regular team jerseys that the other riders wear.
No, they only make maybe 3 or maybe 4 sizes of each jersey for each day. The jerseys aren’t really custom fitted. Usually one of the S M L works fine. Since Armstrong was very likely to be wearing yellow during a time trial, Nike (his sponsor and the tour jersey sponsor) pre-made skinsuits just for him.
Considering 3 of each size:
3 Yellow, 3 Polka Dot, 3 Green, 3 White / day 12 x 20 days = 240
3 skinsuits for each time trial as well 12 skin suits x 4 TT = 48
It is a bit more complicated than what has been mentioned. Look closely at this Picture, Lance’s jersey has the USPS emblem on it. That means that the Jerseys are custom for each team. Also a new Yellow Jersey is given each day to the leader (don’t know about green, polka dot, and the others they don’t show that part on TV)
My guess is that the jerseys are made just in time perhaps the day before. So first day they have Jerseys for each of the different teams. As the race goes on less and less teams will be in a position to capture the yellow, hence less and less jerseys will have to be produced.
The jerseys are made with a blank space on the front and back. When the team of the rider is known, a logo is attached to the blank area. In the 80’s they had some type of iron-on deal which came off sometimes. It looks like they sublimate them now, but I’m not sure.
A fairly recent trend is a team’s clothing sponsor may whip up matching shorts if a rider is wearing one of the jerseys. This is why you may see the rider wear his normal shorts the first day or so, then matching ones from then on. (This assumes that the rider will have whatever jersey for multiple days. Some may only have a jersey for one)