The color yellow was chosen in honor of the sports newspaper that sponsored the race, L’Auto-Vélo, which was printed on yellow paper. There, the Maillot Jaune was born. Eugène Christophe was the first cyclist to wear the jersey in action, after Desgrange handed him the first incantation of the garment on 18th July, 1919.

The history of the yellow jersey dates back to 1919 when it was introduced as a way to easily identify the race leader. The colour yellow was chosen due to its close association with the yellow paper used by the organising newspaper, L’Auto, which later on became L’Équipe.

The Tour’s organizers first awarded the yellow jersey so that gathering crowds could easily identify the race’s leader. The jersey did not make its debut until mid-July 1919, nearly a month into the race. In the first few years of the Tour, the leader would wear a green armband to signal his lead.

The Tour de France yellow jersey was first introduced into the race in 1919. Below, you will find a complete year-by-year breakdown of every rider to wear the yellow jersey during that year's race. There have been 24 different nations represented in the 270 wearers of the yellow jersey at the Tour de France.

And so on July 18, 1919, then-race leader Eugène Christophe premiered the very first yellow Tour de France jersey. Many iterations of the iconic jersey have been produced over the hundred years that followed, but this year’s jerseys — the yellow, green, polka dots and white — are produced by Santini.