Maillot à pois rouges

The polka dot jersey

The polka dot Jersey is worn by the best climber in the Tour de France. Points for best climber classification are awarded at the top of any classified slope.

The Mountains classification is a secondary classification in the Tour deFrance.

The leader of the classification is named the "King of the Mountains", and since 1975 wears the polka dot jersey (French: maillot à pois rouges), a white jersey with red dots.

Since 1905, the organising newspaper l'Auto named one cyclist of the Tour de France the meilleur grimpeur (best climber). Although the best climber was first recognised in 1933, the distinctive jersey was not introduced until 1975. The colours were decided by the then sponsor, Poulain Chocolate or Chocolat Poulain, whose chocolate bars were covered in a polka dot wrapper. 

Currently the jersey is sponsored by Carrefour supermarkets, which has sponsored the jersey since 1993, initially under the Champion brand, it switched to the main Carrefour brand for the 2009 edition of the Tour.

The points that are gained by consecutive riders reaching a mountain top are distributed according to the following classification:

Point Distribution Grid as of 2011
	4C	3C	2C	1C	HC
1st rider	1	2	5	10	20
2nd rider		1	3	8	16
3rd rider			2	6	12
4th rider			1	4	8
5th rider				2	4
6th rider				1	2

Since 2004, points scored on the final climb of the day have been doubled where that climb was at least a second category climb.