Analysis of the points system between 1905 and 1912

I also have information about the modern points system associated with the green jersey.

Points system

Because the organizers suspected a lot of cheating in the 1904 Tour de France, a new method was devised in 1905: the points system. In 1903 and 1904, the classification had been compiled as it is today: each rider's time is added up, and the rider with the fastest time is declared the winner. In 1905, the system changed to points. The winner of a stage received one point, the second-place finisher two points, and so on.

Naturally, the riders adapted accordingly. While the times per stage were recorded, there's little point in compiling a time classification. I'll do it anyway. For many stages, the times are rounded to the nearest minute, so the times below aren't accurate to the second. Nevertheless, this is the most accurate way to check it now.

1904 Tour de France (pre-study)

In 1904, the time system was used, much as we know it today. Due to fiddling, several riders were disqualified after the stage, and the system was changed to the points system. To see if the system change would have had a different outcome, I'll look here at what the result would have been under the points system.

I chose to clean up the classification after each stage by removing riders who had been eliminated from the results. This was done in later Tours anyway for the final classification, and occasionally also midway through.

The results also include riders who finished the Tour and were afterwards disqualified for a single stage, such as Philippe Jousselin and Camille Fily. I chose not to include them. If they had been included, it wouldn't have made any difference in the list of leaders per stage, nor in the final ranking for the top six. See the 1904 disqualifications for more details.

Under the points system, Garin would not have won the 1904 Tour de France, even if he hadn't been disqualified. The table currently shows Pothier as winner, but the code to remove riders that did not finish malfunctioned, and the real winner would have been Aucouturier, who finished almost three hours behind Garin in the time classification. Aucouturier lost almost two and a half hours to Garin in the first stage, finishing in 14th place. Under the time system, he never regained that one-and-a-half-hour lead, but under the points system, this would ultimately cost him only four points compared to Garin, as riders in the intermediate stages dropped out.

Aside from Aucouturier's jump from fourth to first, there wouldn't have been any major changes if the points system had been used. At the bottom of the standings.

After the disqualification of the first four riders from the original classification, Cornet was declared the winner. Under the points system, he would also have been the clear winner.

1905 Tour de France

In 1905, the points system was introduced, but there was still a time-based component: an extra point was awarded for every 5 minutes between riders, with a maximum of 5 points. After the first and second stages, riders who hadn't finished were still allowed to continue. These riders didn't record a time, so I haven't included them in the table below.

There are some minor differences. Under the time system, Aucouturier would have been the leader after stages 4 and 5, instead of Trousselier. The final results don't change much; Pautrat and Gabory swap places. It is clear, however, that Trousselier and Aucouturier were evenly matched, with a difference of less than 8 minutes, while Dortignac is more than an hour behind. This is less evident in the points tally, where Trousselier wins by a wide margin, while Aucouturier and Dortignac are very close.

1906 Tour de France

In 1906, the rule related to 5 minutes was abolished. However, the classification was cleaned up after the 8th and 12th stages by ignoring the retired riders from the stage results and recalculating the points.

The stage overview shows no difference whatsoever. After the first stage, Georget, Passerieu, and Trousselier were tied on time, but because Georget crossed the line first, I've listed him as the sole leader. In the final overview, the order of the stage remains unchanged. It is clear, however, that Pottier won by a wide margin. Incidentally, all the times are further apart: the last-place finisher, Bronchard, spent a total of 52.9% more time on his bike than the winner, Pottier.

1907 Tour de France

In the Tour of 1907, the system from 1906 was used again.

The stage overview shows that Georget takes the lead from Trousselier in the time system two stages later. In the 10th stage, Petit-Breton takes the lead from Georget in the points system; this is because Georget had broken the rules in the ninth stage and finished last in the stage. This cost him 44 points. It's unclear what time penalty this would have equated to (the last finisher finished 8 hours and 29 minutes after him, but that seems an impossible penalty). In all fairness, the penalty would have been more than 47 seconds, and in that case, Petit-Breton would also have taken the lead in the time classification. In the final stage, Georget gained some time on Petit-Breton; with a time penalty of more than 4 minutes and 23 seconds, Petit-Breton would have won the Tour in the time classification as well.

In the final classification, it's notable that Petit-Breton's victory wasn't entirely due to Georget's penalty; without the penalty, he was only 4 minutes and 23 seconds behind. There are a few other minor changes: Faber is three places lower in the time classification, and Roux is even seven places lower. Here too, the time differences are significant: Chartier needed 65.3% more time than Petit-Breton!

1908 Tour de France

In the Tour of 1908, the system from 1906 and 1907 was used again.

Only few changes here. Under the points system, Passerieu and Petit-Breton had the same number of points after the second stage, but under the time system, Passerieu was still 5 minutes ahead. After the third stage, Petit-Breton was already 24 minutes ahead of his nearest rival, and that lead only increased later. At the top of the general classification, Passerieu would have finished second instead of third under the time system. Georges Fleury would have climbed from 7th to 5th place, but nothing much else would change at the top.

1909 Tour de France

In the 1909 Tour de France, the system from 1908 was used again.

In the time system, François Faber clearly still wins. Jean Alavoine and Paul Duboc would have swapped places in the time system, but other than that there are no relevant changes.

What is noteworthy is Faber's total dominance. In 1969, Eddy Merckx won the Tour de France, the points classification, and the mountains classification. Faber would have won all three of these classifications if they had existed. The young rider classification didn't exist yet, but Faber, at 22, would have won that too (Merckx in 1969, not according to the rules from between 1975 and 1983, but according to the rules after 1988). Faber won 6 of the 14 stages, Merckx 6 of the 26 stages. Faber was on the winning team, as was Merckx. Merckx won the combination classification, and Faber would have won that as well. Merckx was voted the most attacking rider, and Faber would undoubtedly have been chosen as well. Faber's team won 13 of the 14 stages, while Merckx's team won 10 of the 26 stages. I believe that Faber's dominance in 1909 was greater than Merckx's dominance in 1969, although of course the comparison is not really straightforward.

1910 Tour de France

In the 1910 Tour de France, the system from 1909 was used again.

In 1910, the points system's results almost completely matched the time system's. I read somewhere that Faber was more of a sprinter and Lapize more of a climber, and that the points system favored Faber. These results don't support this: with the time system, the lead would have been transferred at the same time. After the 13th stage, there was only a 3-minute difference between the two riders. This had increased to 44 minutes after the 14th stage, and by the 15th, it had been reduced to less than half an hour; not very much for that time.

Lapize would eventually have won all the imaginary jerseys (see speculation below), but not with Faber's dominance in 1909.

1911 Tour de France

In the 1911 Tour de France, the system from 1910 was used again. All time registration was rounded to minutes.

The results of the 1911 Tour de France wouldn't have been much different if the time system had been used instead of the points system. The overall lead would have been passed on in the same way, and there wouldn't have been much change at the top of the classification. The biggest change would have been for Ernesto Azzini, who would have finished fifth, not eighth.

In 1911, there was an uproar because Paul Duboc was allegedly poisoned in the tenth stage. In this tenth stage, Duboc lost 19 points to Garrigou, and in time, 3 hours and 13 minutes. Without this stage, Duboc would have narrowly won the points classification, but would have clearly won the time classification.

1912 Tour de France

In 1912, the difference between the time classification and the points classification was stark. Under the time system, Eugène Christophe would have led for most of the race, only losing ground in the very last stage. In this final stage, he lost time by giving up and letting a group break away; it's very likely he wouldn't have done this if he had been the overall leader; at that point, he had a lead of 10 minutes and 50 seconds over Odiel Defraeye. Incidentally, Defraeye wasn't even second in the time system after stages 6 through 8; Octave Lapize was in second place, almost a minute ahead of Defraeye. After the eighth stage, Lapize (who was also second in the points classification at the time, only two points behind) retired because he believed all the Belgians were colluding illegally.

In the final classification, there are also major differences between the time system and the points system, even outside the top two. Third place would not have been for Garrigou, but for Buysse, Garrigou would even drop back to ninth place.

It's highly likely that with the time system, French rider Christophe would have won instead of Belgian Defraeye. It's therefore no coincidence that the French organizers returned to the time system the following year, 1913.

Imaginary jerseys

When the Tour de France was run according to the points system, jerseys weren\t awarded. Using the information above, I can calculate the jerseys that would have been awarded if the system had been the same as it is now.

The general classification is calculated using the time system. Therefore, I award the yellow jersey to the rider with the lowest total time. I do keep in mind that Émile Georget would have received a time penalty of at least 5 minutes in the 1907 Tour de France. Nowadays, the winner of the Tour de France is always the rider with the yellow jersey at the end; this wasn't necessarily the case with this imaginary yellow jersey between 1905 and 1912, although in practice it is similar.

The points classification we have today was introduced in 1953 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Tour de France, with the same rules as the points classification between 1905 and 1912. The system changed after that, but here I award the green jersey to the winner of the points system. Between 1905 and 1912, the winner of this imaginary green jersey was also the winner of the Tour de France.

The polka dot jersey goes to the best climber, or rather, to the leader of the mountain classification. In the current system, there are categories for mountains, and not only the first to cross the finish line receives points. I don't have enough information about the Tours of long ago to calculate it that way, so the rider who first reaches the most mountain peaks (documented on the memoire du cyclisme) gets the polka dot jersey.

The white jersey goes to the best young rider. There have been several variations to the young rider classification. Currently, it's defined as the rider under 26 on January 1st of the year the Tour was held, who is highest in the time classification. I'll stick with that definition here as well.

The combativity award is nowadays selected by a jury. To make it objective, I decided to give this to the rider who during that Tour rode the longest solo (combined).

Imaginary jerseys 1903–1912

Year	Yellow jersey	Green jersey	Polka-dot jersey	White jersey	Combativity award
1903	Maurice Garin	Maurice Garin	Hippolyte Aucouturier	Lucien Pothier	Maurice Garin
1904	Henri Cornet	Henri Cornet	Antoine Fauré	Henri Cornet	Antoine Fauré
1905	Louis Trousselier	Louis Trousselier	Julien Maitron	Louis Trousselier	Hippolyte Aucouturier
1906	René Pottier	René Pottier	René Pottier	Georges Passerieu	René Pottier
1907	Lucien Petit-Breton	Lucien Petit-Breton	Émile Georget	Lucien Petit-Breton	Lucien Petit-Breton
1908	Lucien Petit-Breton	Lucien Petit-Breton	André Pierre Pottier	François Faber	André Pierre Pottier
1909	François Faber	François Faber	François Faber	François Faber	François Faber
1910	Octave Lapize	Octave Lapize	Octave Lapize	Octave Lapize	François Faber
1911	Gustave Garrigou	Gustave Garrigou	Paul Duboc	Charles Crupelandt	Maurice Brocco
1912	Odiel Defraeye	Odiel Defraeye	Eugène Christophe	Odiel Defraeye	Eugène Christophe

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