This year will be special at la Grande Boucle - the 50th anniversary of the polka dot jersey for the king of the mountains classification. The best climber had been honoured since the 1933 Tour de France, but the iconic jersey appeared in 1975.
The first rider to win the polka dot jersey in 1975 was Belgian Lucien Van Impe. Van Impe had already won the mountain classification in 1971-72 and take it three more times for a total of six King of the Mountain awards, tying him the great Federico Bahamontes of the most of all time until the EPO era of the 1990s and 2000s. In 1976, Van Impe won the yellow jersey in Paris, missing out earning mountain classification by a single point to Giancarlo Bellini.
Richard Virenque is the Polka Dot King. He claimed seven jerseys from 1994 to 2004, including four in a row. In 1984, Lucho Herrera became the first Colombian to win a stage of the Tour de France. The next year, Herrera secured his first polka-dot jersey along with two more stage wins. In 1987, he will win his second KoMs title.
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