The Tour de France has the yellow jersey; the Giro d'Italia has the pink. The overall leading cyclist of the inaugural Amgen Tour of California will wear dark gold.
Voler Team Apparel is the official cycling jersey sponsor for the Tour, which begins Feb. 19 for an 8-day, 600-mile stage race around the golden state. The Grover Beach, California-based company (Voler is pronounced vo-LAY) is providing the jerseys in five competitions.
The five jersey styles are available for viewing, and for buying, at the Voler Team Apparel website. There is no bright yellow, no glowing green or dazzling red polka dots here. The colors are fairly low-key and subdued. Very California.
In addition to the overall race leader's gold jersey, the other competition jerseys to be awarded at the close of each race are: the green sprint jersey (ClifBar sponsor); blue jersey for most aggressive cyclist (Adobe); red jersey for king of the mountains (California Travel and Tourism); and grey jersey for best young rider (Union Bank of California).
The tradition of bicycle race leader jerseys in the Tour de France dates back to 1919 when race director Henri Desgrange chose bright yellow so it would be easy to see, Martin Dugard writes in his book, “Chasing Lance.” It also matched the color of the newspaper printed by the sponsor, L'Auto. The green sprinter's jersey followed in 1953; then came the polka dot mountain jersey in 1975.
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