Cyclist
Is it still necessary to ‘honour the jersey’?
It’s a cliché as old as cycling time. When you claim a leader’s jersey, you must ‘honour it’. We hear it at every Grand Tour. We have already ticked it off our bingo card at the ongoing 2024 Giro d’Italia. Geraint Thomas mentioned it after Ineos’s performance on Stage 2, and the team even captioned their post-stage Instagram photo, ‘Honouring the jersey to the maximum.’
Flicking through the pages of the grand cycling dictionary, ‘honouring the jersey’ has many confusing definitions. First, it’s about taking control of the race. Secondly, it’s about assuming a leader’s role in every sense of the word. Thirdly, ‘honouring the jersey’ brings with it an almighty aura that transcends the peloton and grants the leader special status.
In 2024, after all the sporting and cultural shifts the sport has been through, is it still necessary to honour the jersey? Can we escape this Orwellian dystopia where the maglia rosa is Big Brother?
Is the onus on the race leader to control the peloton?
The hierarchy of teams in Grand Tours is usually formulated based on GC standings, stage expectations and other classification tussles. It’s difficult to govern. However, in this anarchy, the team of the GC leader can provide some authority in ruling the peloton. If anything, it is expected for the race leader’s team to do the chasing, set the pace and oversee proceedings in the bunch. This is one responsibility of ‘honouring the jersey’.
It’s almost an unwritten rule that the leading team take control of the race, regardless of their team’s strength and ambitions. Everything they had planned for before the race is overwritten in the name of tradition and jersey duties. Riders who were once sprinters become domestiques, setting the pace and fetching the bottles in recognition of the current leader in the GC standings.
Ineos Grenadiers are the culprits of falling into this traditional trap. We have seen it at the 2024 Giro already, but in the past, Ineos habitually resorted to their default position as peloton gatekeepers when they were in the lead of the GC. This backfired at the 2022 Giro d’Italia when rival Jai Hindley’s Bora squad took a nuanced approach to topple the traditional ‘jersey-honouring’ approach of Ineos.
If there’s no benefit for your team in leading the peloton, why do so? Does it make any sense that a maglia rosa wearer who takes the jersey through an early breakaway and doesn’t have a hope in hell of winning the race overall still has to deploy his team in the ‘jersey-honouring’ choreography?
Is the race leader the boss?
As GC leader, the peloton will expect you to take on the role of patron (French for boss). You become the most important rider in the race, even if your GC stakes in the long term aren’t quite as rosy. As race leader, you set the pace, control the dynamic of the race and decide when the toilet breaks come. That last point is more important than you may think — unless you’re Tom Dumoulin.
For a case study, think of Juan Pedro López’s iconic tenure in the maglia rosa at the 2022 Giro d’Italia. He was vocal, outspoken and animated in his role as race leader. So much so, he was nicknamed ‘El Patrón’.
For a case study of what happens when this convention is broken, think of Andy Schleck and the infamous ‘chaingate’ incident at the 2010 Tour de France. Contador attacked the yellow jersey in a time of mechanical crisis, and he faced no punishment vis-à-vis the rulebook. The fans, however, weren’t too happy about the tradition being broken.
However, this opens a new debate: why is the leader given special treatment? If another competitor in the top ten were in that position, would there be the same outrage? What are the parameters of this unwritten gentlemen’s agreement? When Dumoulin took a toilet break in 2017 before the Passo dello Stelvio, his rivals didn’t wait for him. Likewise, Steven Kruijswijk crashed on a crucial descent while in the maglia rosa at the 2016 Giro. His podium rivals pushed on in front. But more recently yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard waited for Tadej Pogačar to catch him up after the Slovenian crashed in the 2022 Tour de France.
‘Honouring the jersey’ is governed on a case-by-case basis. Like many things in cycling, it’s never as simple as it seems. Who told you that this was an easy sport to watch?
It’s a state of mind
‘Honouring the jersey’ is all about tradition and rules, but sometimes, it’s all about having that special something. You always hear that ‘the jersey gives you wings’ – that’s in reference to the GC leader’s jersey, not the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe one.
Some riders dig deep in homage to the jersey. Think of Julian Alaphilippe’s barnstorming time in the maillot jaune at the 2019 Tour de France, when his team committed fully to the dream scenario of a French victory in Paris, and of course Thomas Voeckler had a similar flirtation with yellow in 2011. The cyclocross duo of Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert even dared to attack and show off the jersey in enthralling fashion at the 2021 and 2022 Tours de France. A more daring approach, but it’s pure ciclismo.
‘Honouring the jersey’ encompasses the commitment to stay at the top of the GC standings. The race leader can play it defensive or offensive – just don’t disrespect the jersey by capitulating at the slightest difficulty to your rivals. Sprinkle in a pinch of panache, and you’re definitely ‘honouring the jersey to the maximum’.
Does ‘honouring the jersey’ still matter?
I’ll be honest, ‘honouring the jersey’ is another one of cycling’s nebulously old-fashioned conventions. Like many things in the sport, it’s not codified in the sports rules, nor is it governed on an equal basis.
In this age of galacticos and superteams, it seems as though honouring the jersey is something of cycling yesteryear. There are more long-term tactics and a season-long Cold War at play between the GC rivals in this day and age. Why honour the jersey when there’s a 21-day-long Grand Tour to tame? There’s no need to burn out your teammates and your team leader as a mark of respect to peloton formalities.
There shouldn’t be a rulebook for wearing the maglia rosa. While you have it, just enjoy it, right? There’s no need to get caught up in this démodé playbook of cycling’s former generations – if you want to be ‘El Patrón’ then go for it, but it shouldn’t be your excuse for ill-thought out tactics.
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