Friday File with Polka Dots

Jersey pois La Grande Boucle by
Le Coq Sportif


Friday File time and it's on one of my favorite, iconic jerseys of the Tour de France; le maillot à pois rouges, also known as the polka dot jersey.

French sportswear manufacturer, Le Coq Sportif introduced their La Grande Boucle: Collection Tour de France sportswear. A fitting reminder for the best climber with the distinctive red dots. It was not always the red dots, that came later, when Vicente Trubea (nicknamed, The Flea of Torrelavega) conquered the mountains and secure the time bonuses. He became the first winner of the classification back in 1933.

It wasn't until 1975, the iconic jersey appeared with the cool polka dots. Sponsor, Chocolat Poulain decided on the red dots for their chocolate bars were in covered in a polka dot wrapper. In the 1975 Tour, Lucien Van Impe was the first rider to win the famous jersey and became as iconic as the jersey as one of the finest climbers in the Tour. He has six KOMs wins: 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1981, 1983.

Red Dots Cycling is proud to have the KOMs Cycling Cap available. Our unique way of honoring the King of the Mountains. We managed to find the elusive polka dot fabric, made of a light weight 100% cotton perfect for the summer. In fact, we love the polka dots so much, we re-branded our name from Galstudio to Red Dots Cycling.

Speaking of climbers, Emma Pooley displayed her climbing talents tackling four categorised climbs to take the GC lead on stage 2 of the Emakumeen Euskal Bira in Spain. The only image I could find of the climber's jersey is this image below...


Stage 1 Lurreta...
that's Christel Ferrier (middle) wearing the polka dot's jersey or I should
say the heart shape red dots! Still pretty cool!


Le Coq Sportif polka dot jersey looks very
similar to the 1975 version...
Won by the cool Lucien Van Impe.



KOMs Cycling Cap by
© Red Dots Cycling


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