Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/3/10

The prologue, used to establish the initial order of the General Classification, also establishes which rider gets to wear the colored jerseys which represent the leaders of the different races within the race: the overall leader by time (GC for General Classement) wears yellow; the points leader, for placings at the finish of each stage and sprint lines within certain stages, wears green; the King of the Mountains (climbing points leader), for placings at the top of categorized climbs, which is not awarded until there is a categorized climb in a stage, wears polka-dots; and the young riders leader, for riders younger than 26 years old at the start of the year, wears white. An additional advantage for having an individual time trial as the prologue at a stage race is that it establishes time splits of hundredths of a second. On the rare occasions where overall leaders end up with the same time, the time splits from an earlier time trial stage are used to establish the actual leader. If there hasn't been a time trial to count the hundredths of a second, then the number of stage wins, and then cumulative placings in earlier stages are used to break the tie.