TOUR DE FRANCE BEGINNER'S GUIDE

This is the one every rider in the peloton covets. Whoever is leading the race gets to wear the yellow jersey: as a rule, if you're riding down the Champs-Elysees on the final stage wearing yellow, you can be assured of a race win. Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara, who led the Tour in its early stages in 2007 and has been in strong form recently, is pictured above.

Here's the one that truly separates the men from the boys. The only thing that is going to win you a polka-dot jersey is hour upon hour of hard graft and physical pain. The best climber on Tour - commonly known as the King of the Mountains - wears the garish red-and-white polka-dot top (worn recently by Stéphane Auge above). L'Alpe d'Huez is commonly regarded as the hardest of the mountain stages, but this year Mont Ventoux ends the penultimate stage of the Tour and everything could be up for grabs.

The Tour recognise the best young rider every year with the white jersey. Belgium's Tony Martin, pictured above, has been awarded the jersey for most of the first week of the Tour de France this year.

Green means go ... faster! Some pro cyclists specialise in sprinting, such as Isle of Man-born rider Mark Cavendish, who is in with a shout of winning seven stages in the 2009 Tour. The leading sprinter on the Tour is awarded the green jersey for his high-speed efforts - pictured above is British sprint king Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia, whose fierce riding makes him the one to beat for the green this year.

You'll hear this referred to plenty during the race but it's not another strange French name - it's the group of riders itself. The literal translation from French is 'ball' - there will be breakaways from the main group, but mainly riders believe there is safety in numbers. The only downside, of course, is that if one rider falls, a few more go down with him.

With nine riders in each team at the start of each year's event, this competition is settled through adding the times of each outfit's best three riders each day. Whichever team has the lowest combined time total at the end takes home the award. The leaders in this classification wear numbers printed black-on-yellow on their jersey instead of black-on-white.

This was introduced to reward riders who take a risk during each day's racing by breaking away from the pack solo or inspiring group breakaways. Whoever gets the nod wears a number printed white-on-red on their jersey instead of black-on-white with an overall award handed out at the end to the most aggressive rider over the entire three weeks. Pictured is British rider Bradley Wiggins, who staged a brave breakaway on the 13th stage last year, on the anniversary of legendary rider Tom Simpson's death.

Watch out for this bloke - he's hard to miss. German cycling fan Didi Senft is part of the Tour de France furniture now, and quite clearly relishes his three weeks of fame every year. You'll see him prancing along beside the riders in his devil outfit and generally making a spectacle of himself.