OK, so I’ve been keepin’ pretty close tabs on this years Tour de France, and wow, what a great show it’s been so far. The competition between Armstrong and Ulrich is classic. Anyhow, what got me wondering is just how many yellow jackets do they make for the tour? What happens to the left-overs? If someone loses the yellow in one stage, does he get to keep it as a souvenir?
It seems when the jackets are awarded, they already have all the funky little sponsorship patches on them, so how does that work? And they must come in different sizes, I suppose, no?
I don’t follow the Tour too closely, but I assume you mean yellow jersey when you say yellow jacket, yes? If so you’ll get your answers in a July 22 NY Times article called The Most Soughtafter Tailor in France by Samuel Abt. Here’s a link I hope will work. (If not, go to the Times home page and do a search. But do it fast – in a week or two it gets archived and will cost you $2.50 to access.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/22/weekinreview/22BOXA.html?searchpv=day05
Akk! That should be The Most Sought After Tailor in France.
“Sought after” is not one word. Sorry.
The yellow jersey is presented every single day, sometimes twice if there is a prologue, so there are as many yellow jerseys as there are stages plus a couple.
The sponsors logos are ironed on at the very last moment but it is sometimes fairly clear who will be the holder of that days yellow jersey before the stage has even begun so sometimes they are done a day or so in advance.
This has led to the occasional delay in the days jersey presentations when a riders has gained an unexpected amount of time on the previously established holder and the jersey had already been made up. They then have to panic a bit and get the another jersey and quickly make it up wioth the team sponsors logo.