How the Vuelta leader’s jersey went from orange to white, yellow to gold and finally red
We’ve grown accustomed to seeing the leader of the Vuelta a España in red, but that colour is a relatively recent tradition in the Spanish grand tour. From Gustaaf Deloor back in 1935 to Primož Roglič last year, the race leader has worn jerseys in a range of colours. Read on for our deep dive into the history and evolution of the Vuelta’s leader’s jersey.
On Saturday, the winner of the opening stage of the Vuelta a España will pull on the race’s first red jersey, going down in history as the overall leader. For all those who wear it, there will be daily visits to the podium, fans will know his name, and progress through the peloton will be that tiny bit easier, with other riders respecting the jersey.
Red seems an appropriate colour for the nation’s grand tour leader. It features prominently on the Spanish flag, matches many of the national sports teams’ strips, and is closely associated with the nation’s famous passion. But it has not always been linked to the Vuelta. The Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia have stuck with their respective yellow and pink jerseys, while the Vuelta has chopped and changed, with yellow, the other colour of the Spanish flag, enjoying the longest spell as the leader’s jersey.
Those changes stem from the race’s somewhat stop-start early years. The Vuelta a España began in 1935, though only two editions were held before the Spanish Civil War forced its suspension. There were three editions during World War II, in 1941 and 1942, and the race returned two days after the first Victory in Europe Day, on May 10, 1945. Despite the end of hostilities, the event failed to gain a foothold, running only four of the following five years before a five-year hiatus. Only with its return in 1955 did Spain’s national tour finally gain traction, and it has not missed a year since.
As we have become used to the winner wearing red, we have also grown accustomed to the race’s regular late-summer slot, part of the more structured season we now enjoy. That, too, is a relatively recent addition. While the 17-day edition in 1950 began in late summer on August 17, the race traditionally took place in late spring, running from April into May and finishing just days before the Giro d’Italia, which made any kind of double very difficult. The race only moved permanently to its August start in 1995.
The very first stage of the Vuelta was held on 29 April 1935, with the peloton covering 185 kilometres north from Madrid to Valladolid, where Belgian Antoon Dignef took the victory. Both he and compatriot Gustaaf Deloor, who won the general classification that year and again in 1936, wore an orange jersey as race leader.
Completed at an average speed of just over 29 km/h, Deloor’s second GC victory remains the slowest on record, and that is hardly likely to change given the sport’s modern trend toward ever-faster races. In 1937 he won a stage of the Tour de France and placed second at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but like many of his contemporaries, his professional career was cut short by World War II.
With so many men enlisted into their country’s armies, the peloton of the 1941 and 1942 Vueltas was dominated by home riders. Julián Berrendero won both editions, first in a white jersey and then in an orange one, with only one non-Spanish rider finishing in the top ten across those two years. Like Gustaaf Deloor, Berrendero also won a stage of the 1937 Tour de France, although much of his success came on home soil in the 1940s, remarkably after enduring the hardships of one of Franco’s concentration camps.
Delio Rodríguez remains the Vuelta’s record stage winner, victorious in an astonishing 39 stages across five editions in the 1940s. Despite such dominance he claimed the overall classification only once, in 1945, when he wore a white jersey with a red horizontal stripe. That design lasted until the 1950 edition, which was won by another Rodríguez, this time Emilio.
After its hiatus, the race returned in 1955 with new organisers and a new leader’s jersey, one that would finally stand the test of time. Apart from a one-year return to orange in 1977, the Vuelta’s yellow jersey, the maillot amarillo, endured for more than 40 years until 1998. Five different riders wore yellow during the 1955 edition. Gilbert Bauvin took it on the opening stage, while his French compatriot Jean Dotto won the overall, seizing the jersey on stage 10 to Cuenca, where he finished third as a four-man breakaway gained more than six minutes on the peloton.
Although Dotto secured the general classification without a stage win, he went on to achieve a remarkable feat by any standard. A week after sealing victory in Bilbao, he started the Giro d’Italia in Milan, winning stage 19 into Trento from a breakaway and finishing 17th overall. On June 5, 1955, he stood in yellow in Bilbao; two days later he was in Le Havre for the opening stage of the Tour de France, although he abandoned the race on stage 16.
Dotto passed away in February 2000, less than six months after the introduction of the gold jersey, which replaced yellow to create some distinction from the Tour de France’s maillot jaune. Igor González de Galdeano was the first rider to wear it after winning the 6 km prologue in Murcia, and he held on to finish second overall behind Jan Ullrich, the German’s second and final grand tour victory.
In certain light you could see that the gold jersey was indeed gold, but for all practical purposes it looked too similar to yellow, and it lasted only 10 years. Riding for Caisse d’Epargne, the precursor of today’s Movistar team, Alejandro Valverde was the last man to wear the maillot oro, winning the 2009 edition. Though he did not win a stage, it was a valuable success to sign off before serving a two-season suspension.
The following year, after HTC-Colombia won the team time trial in Seville, Mark Cavendish was awarded the first maillot rojo. He wore it for two days before Philippe Gilbert replaced him as overall leader with victory in Málaga. That year’s race was ultimately won by Vincenzo Nibali, another champion who claimed the title without a stage win across the 21 days.
In the 15 editions since its introduction, a total of 55 riders have worn the red jersey for at least one stage, while 10 men from seven different nations have carried it to Madrid. Among them, Chris Horner became the oldest grand tour winner in history at 41 years and 327 days, more than seven years older than Primož Roglič when he became the second-oldest winner last year.
Alberto Contador and Chris Froome have each won the Vuelta twice, while Roglič has taken four overall victories and will line up on Saturday as defending champion. It will not be long before we discover who is next to join that list.
