Despite being associated with cowardice and Coldplay, whose best- known song is named for it, the colour yellow has many positive connotations – sunlight, for instance, and bubble-permed Scottish goalkeeper Alan Rough, who wore a yellow shirt in the 1978 World Cup when Scotland bested the so-called "total football" of the Dutch.
Currently it's a different sporting discipline and a different sort of shirt which is giving the colour its praiseworthy lustre: the Tour de France, which since 1919 has awarded a yellow jersey to its overall leader. This year that leader happens to be one Bradley Wiggins, Ghent-born but London-raised.
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