Maillot Vert

Lore & Background

The points classification was born in 1953 as the Tour sought to give fast, flat stages a dedicated prize beyond the overall general classification. In those early years the jersey was not yet green; the colour evolved over the following decades before settling into the iconic shade we recognise today. The scoring system—points dished out to the first riders over the line at each stage finish, plus bonus points at intermediate sprints scattered across the route—was designed to reward consistency as much as raw speed, so a rider who won one sprint but faded the next would trail one who finished second on multiple stages.

The jersey's history is inseparable from the great sprinters. Mark Cavendish, the 'Manx Missile,' redefined the category in the 2010s, collecting six green jerseys and becoming the most decorated points-classification winner in Tour history. Before him, Eddy Merckx proved the green could be a by-product of total dominance, sweeping it alongside the yellow in the same Tour. In more recent memory, Peter Sagan brought a different flavour to the green, mixing breakaway points with sprint finishes to claim four titles and make the jersey a symbol of all-round attacking riding rather than pure flat-out speed.

For fans along the roadside, the green jersey is the Tour's most visceral prize. It is the jersey that makes a stage finish feel like a street race, that turns a flat Tuesday in the countryside into a spectacle of wheels, shouting, and a final 200 metres of pure chaos.

In Their Own Story

The sun hangs low over a wide, straight stretch of road in the Pays de la Loire. The peloton has been grinding for four hours, the wind cutting through the front row, and then the radio crackles: 'Two kilometres to the sprint.' The green-jerseyed leader tucks in behind his team car, the sprinter slots in behind him, and the whole field compresses into a single, roaring column. The intermediate-sprint board flashes past at the halfway mark—three riders peel off, take the bonus points, and vanish into the distance. Back in the main group, the wheel-to-wheel shuffle begins. The lead-out rider peels off. The sprinter stands on the pedals, eyes locked on the line, and the green jersey flaps behind him like a flag in a gale. The crowd on the verge is a single, screaming wall. He crosses first. The green stays green.

Reader's Guide

The Maillot Vert is the Tour's points classification, first awarded in 1953. Points are scored at every stage finish and at one or two intermediate sprints per stage. The more riders who finish in the lead group, the higher the point spread—so a mass-finish sprint on a flat stage can be worth more than a small-group finish on a hilly day. The rider with the most cumulative points after the final stage in Paris wears the green jersey.

In practice the classification belongs to sprinters. Mark Cavendish, with six green jerseys, is the all-time leader and the rider most associated with the category. Peter Sagan, with four, brought a different identity to the green by collecting points on breakaways as well as in sprints, proving the jersey was not exclusively a flat-road prize. Eddy Merckx, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, showed a general-classification leader could sweep the green as a by-product of winning nearly everything.

The scoring system has been tweaked over the decades—intermediate sprints were added, point values adjusted to favour or de-emphasise mass finishes—but the core idea has remained: reward the rider who is fastest, most often, across the entire three-week race. For a sprinter, the green is not a consolation prize; it is the Tour.

Did You Know?

• The points classification was introduced in 1953, making it one of the oldest secondary classifications in the Tour de France.
• Mark Cavendish holds the record for the most green jerseys with six wins, a tally no other rider has matched.
• Eddy Merckx won the green jersey in the same Tour as the overall yellow, demonstrating that the points classification could be claimed by a general-classification leader rather than a pure sprinter.
• Intermediate sprints, which award bonus points mid-stage, were added to the scoring system to give breakaway riders a path to the green and to make hilly stages more relevant to the classification.