Cycling
Tour de France: Lipowitz eyes white jersey win – can he join these icons?
As Florian Lipowitz leads the 2025 Tour de France youth standings, we look back at what became of past white-jersey winners – during their careers and beyond.
The yellow jersey is the main prize of the Tour de France, but three other contests also play out for the duration of the Grand Tour’s 21 days of racing. While there are specific point-based rewards for the sprinters and the climbers – the green and polka dot jerseys, respectively – there is also an award for the best general classification rider who'll be aged 26 or under on December 31 of that year.
Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe’s Florian Lipowitz made history on stage 14 of the 2025 edition, becoming the team’s first-ever white jersey wearer in the outfit’s 12th Tour de France. The 24-year-old German, who's making his Tour de France debut, edged into the lead of the young rider classification after the withdrawal of last year’s winner Remco Evenepoel.
Florian Lipowitz during his Tour de France debut
© Maximilian Fries/Red Bull Content Pool
Lipowitz currently sits third in the overall standings, 2m 01s ahead of his nearest white jersey challenger, Oscar Onley. With five days of racing and the mountains of the Alps still to come, Lipowitz has plenty to do to confirm his place in Tour de France folklore, but with support on offer from the likes of five-time Grand Tour winner Primož Roglič, you can expect the climbing specialist to give it his best shot.
But is the white jersey winner guaranteed a career full of success? Here are some of the most iconic names to win the Tour’s young rider classification.
01
Francesco Moser
Francesco Moser won the first-ever white jersey
© Photo by Dimitri Iundt/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images
The first white jersey was awarded 50 years ago in 1975, and was won by Francesco Moser. The Italian led the competition for all but two days of the race and finished seventh in the overall general classification. While it was his only Tour de France, he had great success at his home Grand Tour – the Giro d’Italia – where he won the overall once (1984), points jersey four times (1976, ‘77, ‘78, ‘82), and 23 stages in 13 starts. Moser would also wear the rainbow bands of the world champion, beating the likes of Bernard Hinault and Eddy Merckx in 1977.
02
Phil Anderson
Phil Anderson was unable to repeat his 1982 performance
© Photo by Graham Watson/Getty Images
While Moser went on to have a storied Grand Tour career, 1982 winner Phil Anderson was one of those whose success didn’t translate into wins in the biggest stage races on the calendar. The Australian rode into the 1982 edition’s general classification lead on stage 2, becoming the first-ever non-European wearer of the yellow jersey, and ultimately finished fifth in the overall. He would only win one more Tour de France stage in his career, in 1991. He retired in 1994 and now owns a farm in Australia.
03
Greg Lemond
Greg Lemond won the yellow jersey three times
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Lemond is one of the most successful Tour de France riders ever, winning three yellow jerseys (1986, 1989 and 1990) and two world championships (1983 and 1989) in his professional career. While sporting the rainbow bands, the American also added the white jersey to his collection in 1984, where he rode in support of the winner Laurent Fignon (also a winner of the 1983 white jersey) and finished third in the GC. If that wasn’t impressive enough, he overcame adversity at the mid-point of his career when he was accidentally shot and severely wounded in a hunting accident in 1987.
More on Florian Lipowitz and the Tour de France
04
Marco Pantani
Marco 'the Pirate' Pantani won the Tour and Giro in the same year
© Tom Able-Green/ALLSPORT/Getty Images
The first two-time winner of the white jersey, ‘the Pirate’ was the Tour’s best young rider in 1994 and 1995, finishing third and 13th on GC, respectively. It was a sign of things to come from the out-of-this-world Italian climber, who would clinch the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France general classification double in 1998 – becoming only one of eight riders to achieve this feat. He would win 16 stages across both Grand Tours, but his career was tragically cut short in 2004 when he died of a suspected overdose.
05
Tadej Pogačar
Tadej Pogačar looks set to become an all-time Tour great
© Kristof Ramon/Red Bull Content Pool
The Slovenian phenom holds the record number of white jersey wins, claiming the title for four consecutive years between 2020 and 2023. His first coincided with his announcement on the world stage, Pogačar overtaking compatriot Primož Roglič in the overall standings on the penultimate stage to win his first yellow jersey. The 26-year-old has rewritten the rulebooks ever since, winning another two Tours de France (2021, 2024), the Giro d’Italia (2024) and world championships (2024) – becoming only the seventh rider to win cycling’s triple crown of the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and world championships in the same year. Currently leading the 2025 edition, few would bet against him adding a fourth yellow jersey to his collection, and with plenty of years ahead of him, he looks set to rival Eddy Merckx’s title of the greatest of all time.
06
Remco Evenepoel
Remco Evenepoel won the white jersey in 2024
© Tim de Waele/Getty Images
The Belgian is one of the few riders to prove themselves before they win the white jersey. Evenepoel already had a La Vuelta red jersey (2022) and world championship (2022) to his name before he lined up at his first Tour de France in 2024, where he proceeded to dominate the youth category en route to third in the overall. It was just the start of a successful summer in France for Evenepoel, who added gold medals in the road race and individual time trial at the Paris Olympics. The 25-year-old had led the 2025 Tour’s white jersey after his win on stage 5’s individual time trial, but relinquished the chance to make it back-to-back wins when he retired with illness on stage 14.
