At first glance, the combination jersey looks like several Tour de France jerseys got mixed together in the laundry.
There’s yellow. There’s green. There are polka dots. The blocks meet at angles that give the shirt the slightly unruly charm of a homemade patchwork project. Then you find out it was an official leader’s jersey, and the design starts making sense.
The jersey belonged to the combination classification, a competition that rewarded performance across several of the Tour’s other standings. Its multicolored form appeared in 1985 and lasted through 1989. [1, 2]
It was the Tour putting an explanation directly onto a rider’s chest. Several competitions contributed to one result, so several visual identities contributed to one shirt.
The idea came before the patchwork
The combination classification began in 1968. The Tour’s own account describes its purpose as recognizing the best all-round rider, rather than rewarding only one kind of performance. [1]
That distinction makes sense even if you never plan to study an old results sheet. A stage race produces several different ways of measuring success. Total time tells one story. Consistent high finishes and climbing results tell others. The combination competition tried to bring several of those stories together.
The exact calculation changed across its history, so it’s better not to apply one simple formula to every edition. The essential idea was broader performance across classifications. Winning the combination didn’t mean a rider had independently won every jersey represented in its design. [2]
That last point matters. The shirt looks like a claim to everything. It actually marked a separate competition with its own scoring.
A little red explains a lot
One of the more revealing details is the red patch.
As Cyclist’s history of the Tour jerseys explains, red once identified the separate intermediate-sprints competition. The combination design therefore preserves a piece of the Tour’s visual vocabulary that a modern viewer may not immediately recognize. [3]
A yellow panel is easy to place. Green and polka dots also have familiar meanings. Red makes you stop and ask what else used to be going on in this race.
That’s one of the pleasures of old cycling clothing. A jersey can retain information that no longer appears in a current race graphic. You notice a color, follow it back, and discover a competition that once mattered enough to have its own prize and its own shirt.
For the jerseys still familiar to most viewers, Retrolica’s guide to what the Tour colors mean provides the starting point. The combination jersey belongs in the next chapter.
Why it gets confused with La Vie Claire
Put a mid-1980s combination jersey beside a La Vie Claire team jersey and the confusion is understandable. Both use bold blocks of color. Both belong to the same period. Both turn up in photographs associated with Greg LeMond.
But the resemblance can obscure two different jobs. The La Vie Claire jersey identifies a team. The combination jersey identifies a position in a Tour classification. Team sponsorship could appear on a race leader’s jersey without turning it into the team’s regular outfit.
A useful way to read an old photograph is to begin with the large color pattern, then move to the sponsor names. Starting with the lettering alone can send you down the wrong road. The name tells you who the rider represents; the design may tell you what that rider is leading.
The competition disappeared and the design kept traveling
The combination classification ended after the 1989 Tour. It was part of a reduction in the race’s secondary competitions under Jean-Marie Leblanc. [2, 3]
The visual idea proved harder to retire. When the Tour introduced its 2018 leader jerseys, the organizer explicitly identified the old combination design as an inspiration. The patchwork structure returned in a more restrained form, with the yellow jersey using different shades of yellow. [1]
That seems like a fair afterlife for such an odd shirt. The standings disappeared, but someone still found a use for the drawing.
You don’t need to want the competition back to enjoy the jersey. It’s a small record of a busier Tour, when the organizers kept finding additional things to measure and additional colors for riders to wear.
Sources
1. Tour de France — When the past inspires the present
2. Combination classification history and linked historical references
3. Cyclist — History of the Tour de France jerseys and their colors