Sponsor issue puts spotlight on Vingegaard’s polka dot jersey at the Tour

There was some commotion at the start of stage 6 of the Tour de France in Bayeux, regarding the polka dot jersey, according to Wielerflits. 

The jersey is awarded to the rider who has the most points in the mountains classification, and at the end of stage 5's time trial in Caen on Wednesday, Tadej Pogačar led in the standings with 5 points, with his teammate Tim Wellens tied on 5 in second, due to the categorisation of the climbs where each rider gained their points. 

With Pogačar also taking the lead in the general classification, and also the points classification, the Slovenian would swap rainbows for yellow, meaning that rider in 2nd in the mountains standings would wear polka dots on his behalf for stage 6. Normally, it would have been Wellens, who sits 2nd in the standings, however, the Belgian is also the national road race champion and sports the Belgian colours on his jersey and in line with the UCI's rules (a champion's jerset takes prededence if the leader's jersey isn't officially yours), the rider who sits third in the standings would have to wear the jersey which was Jonas Vingegaard at the end of stage 5.

However, there was an issue regarding sponsorship that nearly stopped Vingegaard lining up in polka dots on Thursday morning in Bayeux. The Dane was initially reluctant to wear the jersey due to a prohibited gambling sponsorship. The jersey featured BetCity logos, a gambling company, and this is an issue since sports sponsorship by gambling companies has been prohibited since July 1.  Wearing the jersey with these logos could have resulted in fines from the Dutch Gambling Authority for Vingegaard, his team, and the sponsor BetCity.

Team officials from Visma | Lease a Bike were seen in intense discussions with UCI commissaires and ASO director Yann Le Moenner near the team bus before the stage start. Creating a new jersey quickly proved impossible as printing equipment was already at the finish line in Vire-Normandie. The solution came just before the stage start at 12:32 (CET) when Vingegaard appeared with the jersey but with the sponsor logos covered up, allowing him to compete without risking financial penalties.

Tim Wellens responded to the commotion before the start to WielerFlits. "I'd love to start in the polka dot jersey, but I didn't have the choice. Of course, I have a nice Belgian jersey, but it would have been nice to wear the polka dot jersey again for a day. If I can, I'll quickly change, but I didn't have that choice," Wellens said.