Tour de France 100 Limited Edition Jersey

For the 100th Tour de France, Le Tour made available for purchase a limited edition cycling jersey in black to commemorate the final stage, which ends at night.

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When you first look at the jersey you see the logo for Le Coq Sportif (a French sporting goods company founded in 1882 that first supplied the Tour de France in 1951) and the initials of Henri Desgrange (the originator of the Tour de France). What is not immediately noticeable (and is in fact very hard to see) is the number 100 that is printed in a slightly lighter shade of black in the middle of the jersey (the bottom left photo above was enhanced to make the “100” visible).

The logo for Le Coq Sportif is again featured on the back of the jersey, and Henri Desgrange’s initials are located at the top of the center pocket. Below the initials is text that reads (in French) “In 1903 Henri Desgrange created the biggest cycling event of all time." 

It doesn’t look like the jersey is available any longer (and if that’s true, then they went very fast), but due to the subtlety of the design it’s not something that the average person (or perhaps even your cycling buddies) would recognize as Tour de France jersey. I’m glad I bought one, but it would have been nice if Le Tour had issued a jersey that more prominently celebrated the 100th edition of the race.