The general classification (or the GC) in road bicycle racing is the category that tracks overall times for riders in multi-stage races.
[1] Hence, whoever leads the GC is generally regarded as the overall leader or winner of the race.
Two riders are said to have finished in the same group if the gap between them is less than three seconds.
A crash or mechanical incident in the final 3 kilometres of a stage that finishes without a categorised climb usually means that riders thus affected are considered to have finished as part of the group they were with at the 3 km mark, so long as they finish the stage.
In many bicycle races, the current leader of the GC gets a special jersey awarded.