Editing Tour de France (section)

===General classification===
{{Main|General classification in the Tour de France}}
{{See also|List of Tour de France general classification winners|Yellow jersey statistics}}

[[File:Voigt Cancellara TDF 2010 Cambrai (cropped).JPG|thumb|upright|[[Fabian Cancellara]] pictured at the [[2010 Tour de France]]. He is the rider who has worn the yellow jersey as leader of the [[General classification in the Tour de France|general classification]] for the most days without having ever been the overall winner]]
The oldest and most sought-after classification in the Tour de France is the general classification.<ref name="SL exp"/><ref name="clasexp">{{cite web|url=http://www.roadcycling.co.nz/TourdeFrance/tour-de-france-demystified-part-1.html |title=Tour de France demystified&nbsp;— Evaluating success |first=Sarah |last=Christian |date=2 July 2009 |access-date=18 July 2013 |publisher=RoadCycling|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130209134934/http://www.roadcycling.co.nz/TourdeFrance/tour-de-france-demystified-part-1.html |archive-date=9 February 2013}}</ref> All of the stages are timed to the finish.<ref name="clasexp"/> The riders' times are compounded with their previous stage times; so the rider with the lowest aggregate time is the leader of the race.<ref name="SL exp"/><ref name="clasexp"/> The leader is determined after each stage's conclusion: he gains the privilege to wear the yellow jersey, presented on a podium in the stage's finishing town, for the next stage. If he is leading more than one classification that awards a jersey, he wears the yellow one, since the general classification is the most important one in the race.<ref name="ASO"/> Between [[1905 Tour de France|1905]] and [[1912 Tour de France|1912]] inclusive, in response to concerns about rider cheating in the [[1904 Tour de France|1904 race]], the general classification was awarded according to a point-based system based on their placings in each stage, and the rider with the lowest total of points after the Tour's conclusion was the winner.<ref name="clasexp"/>

The leader in the [[1903 Tour de France|first Tour de France]] was awarded a green armband.{{sfn|Woodland|2007|p=}} The yellow jersey (the color was chosen as the newspaper that created the Tour, ''[[L'Auto]]'', was printed on yellow paper), was added to the race in the 1919 edition and it has since become a symbol of the Tour de France.<ref name="SL exp"/> The first rider to wear the yellow jersey was [[Eugène Christophe]]. Riders usually try to make the extra effort to keep the jersey for as long as possible in order to get more publicity for the team and its sponsors. [[Eddy Merckx]] wore the yellow jersey for 96 stages, which is more than any other rider in the history of the Tour. Four riders have won the general classification five times in their career: [[Jacques Anquetil]], [[Eddy Merckx]], [[Bernard Hinault]], and [[Miguel Induráin]].