The Tour de France started today in Brussels, Belgium, celebrating Belgian native Eddy Merckx's 50th anniversary of his first Tour overall victory. (letourdefrance)
The Tour made a big deal of celebrating Eddy Merckx's wearing his first yellow jersey, and then winning the whole grand tour, fifty years ago because the first stage started in Brussels, Belgium. That's a nice tie-in to the Tour celebrating the 100th anniversary of the yellow jersey being worn by the overall leader during each stage, first worn by Eugène Christophe in 1919. The color yellow was chosen to match the yellow newsprint of L'Auto, the news magazine which created the Tour de France. Before Merckx first won in 1969, there had not been a Belgian winner since Sylvère Maes in 1939.
In a nice coincidence of 30 years, that's how long it had been since a Dutch rider had worn the yellow jersey. It's hard to believe, but Erik Breukink was the last cyclist from the Netherlands to wear the yellow jersey after winning the first stage in 1989. This year, Mike Teunissen of Jumbo-Visma ended that drought in a photo finish with Peter Sagan.
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