A Rookie’s Guide to the Tour de France – White Jersey Breakdown

As you may remember from part 2 of this series, the white jersey is awarded to the best overall rider on GC who is under 25. For most riders who are in the hunt for the white jersey, the yellow jersey is also in play, so the white jersey is almost seen as a consolation prize in many instances. However, the battle for white should be fierce, and there are some huge young talents in the mix.

This year, the race for white appears to be pretty much a three man affair, so I will preview those three riders in detail.

Nairo Quintana

Quintana was listed as one of the big four favorites in the hunt for the yellow jersey, and he is the huge favorite to win the white jersey. With the way Quintana climbs, it is almost a certainty that as long as he arrives in Paris, he will be sporting the white jersey. Quintana is a classic Colombian climber, and he is probably the best in the peloton in the high mountains.

Thibaut Pinot

Pinot won the young rider classification last year, and he would certainly be happy with a repeat victory in 2015. Pinot is another of the peloton’s finest climbers and he will be on the attack in the third week of the Tour with aspirations of a high finish on GC. If Quintana does not make it that far, I see Pinot as the favorite to claim the white jersey. That being said, I would be very surprised if he is able to give Quintana much of a fight.

Romain Bardet

Another young Frenchman coming off a high finish on GC in 2014, Bardet will look to parlay his success a year ago into a jersey in 2015. Last year, Bardet was second in this competiton by a meager 3 minutes to Pinot, and he will be a worthy competitor to Pinot if a battle emerges between the two French riders. Another thing to consider is that both Bardet and Pinot will be happy to hold the white jersey if Quintana finds himself in yellow, and they may compete amongst one another for second on young rider GC in order to simply wear the jersey for a day while Quintana wears yellow.

Although those three are the overwhelming favorites to claim white, there are a few other riders worth a mention. Wilco Kelderman will be riding his first tour after finishing in the top 15 in the other two grand tours last year, and he is certainly a climber with the ability to get his hands on the white jersey. Brothers Simon and Adam Yates will be in the mix for a top 5 finish in the youth standings, as both can climb with the best and should be aggressively looking for breakaways, which could end up in big time gains. Warren Barguil shares a team with super sprinters Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb, but he is a talented young climber who has two Vuelta a’Espana stage wins to his credit in his only grand tour, also he is French so the home fans will be cheering for him big time. Finally, Michal Kwiatkowski is a big talent, as evidenced by his world championship title, and he will be in the mix as well, although he struggles in the high mountains.

Thanks for taking a look at my 2015 white jersey breakdown. A Rookie’s Guide to the Tour de France will be back tomorrow with a breakdown of the candidates for the King of the Mountains classification.

Other Parts of The Series:
Part 1 – Introduction – Click Here

Part 2 – Races within the Race – Click Here

Part 3 – Basic Bike Race Strategy – Click Here

Part 4 – Types of Stage – Click Here

Part 5 – Types of Rider – Click Here

Part 6 – Yellow Jersey Breakdown – Click Here

Part 7 – Green Jersey Breakdown – Click Here