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Sastre couldn’t wear yellow jersey to start

Tour officials shelved tradition following three years of controversy

Published: Jul. 4, 2009
Sastre wanted to start the Tour in yellow, but organizers said that practice is now over.
Sastre wanted to start the Tour in yellow, but organizers said that practice is now over.
Photo: Agence France Presse

Defending champion Carlos Sastre wanted to wear the yellow jersey to start the 2009 Tour de France in Saturday’s time trial, but race officials told him he couldn’t.

Officials from Cervélo TestTeam approached Tour officials Friday evening about allowing Sastre to wear the maillot jaune, but race officials said the tradition of the previous year’s winner starting the next year’s race was one for the history books.

“We decided to stop this tradition,” said Tour spokesman Mathieu Desplats. “It was a tradition, not a rule. It’s a new race, with a new start and new contenders. There’s no reason why to wear the yellow jersey.”

The tradition of the defending champion wearing the maillot jaune to open the Tour began in the 1970s and became a familiar trademark as the previous year’s winner starting the opening prologue in yellow.

That tradition continued until the retirement of Lance Armstrong in 2005 after winning seven consecutive crowns.

But tradition stuttered the following three years, when controversy and doping scandals meant that Tours from 2006-2008 began without a defending champion at the line.

No one wore a yellow jersey in the 2006 opening prologue simply because there wasn’t a defending champion in the field. Armstrong had retired and his crown was prime for the taking.

The 2007 Tour also started without a yellow jersey because the fate of disqualified winner Floyd Landis was still undetermined. Landis’s appeal was still pending before the start of the 2007 Tour, meaning that eventual winner Oscar Pereiro couldn’t have the honor of starting in yellow.

In 2008, the Tour yet again started without a defending champion because Alberto Contador wasn’t in the race when his Astana team was prevented from racing.

By the time Cervélo officials inquired about a yellow jersey for Sastre to wear in Monaco, the Tour organization had already quietly decided to shelve the long-running tradition.