THE CURSE OF THE RAINBOW JERSEY
October welcomes a week of Road World Championship events in Doha, where we wait to see who will emerge triumphant from the windy deserts of Qatar. Reigning champions Peter Sagan and Lizzie Deignan will both be defending their road stripes after a season all but dispelling one of the most famous superstitions in cycling — the Curse of the Rainbow Jersey.
The jersey with its famous five bands of green, yellow, black, red and blue has long been thought to bring only bad luck to the champion in the following season. We take a look back through the history books at some of the best known of these tales of hard luck.
"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." Dolly Parton
1965 — Tom Simpson, GB
Britain’s only real success for decades broke a leg skiing the winter after becoming World Champion, curtailing what would have been a lucrative season in the famous rainbow bands. A slippery slope.
1981 — Freddy Maertens , BEL
Maertens didn’t himself suffer anything worse than a dramatic loss of form, winning no races as Champion and only a further two races in his career. An even greater tragedy linked to Maertens and the stripes came years earlier when fellow Belgian World Champion Jean-Pierre Monseré died after a collision with a car whilst wearing the stripes. Sadly Monseré’s son suffered the same fate aged just 7 on a bike given to him by Freddy Maertens.
1987 — Stephen Roche , IRE
Irishman Roche had quite the year in 1987, winning the Tour and Giro earlier in the season and becoming a household name in the UK and Ireland in the process. Sadly a knee injury put paid to almost the entire 1988 season, preventing Roche from a year long lap of honour.
Laurent Brochard, Igor Astarloa & David Millar
A trio of World Champions who fell foul not so much to the legend of the jersey but the after-effects of drugs. Brochard was embroiled in the landmark Festina affair and Millar stripped of his time trial title after admitting EPO use. Astarloa was genuinely unlucky, moving to Cofidis as World Champion at a time when the team all but suspended itself in the wake of drug allegations. Drugs may work, but they don’t help you retain your rainbow jersey. Don’t do it, kids.
2004 — Óscar Freire, ESP
With good form in the Spring, Freire looked odds on to beat the curse until injury struck. A saddle sore put paid to a defence of his title. What a pain in the...
2012 — Philippe Gilbert, BEL
Another tale of poor form, Phil Gil won only a solitary race in the stripes.
2013 — Rui Costa, POR
Not helped by a case of Bronchitus, the Portuguese opportunist was a less than glamourous champion who raced little after August the following year.
The Exceptions to the Rule
It seems a shame to mention the exceptions, why let facts get in the way of a good cycling legend? But, in fairness, there have been plenty of exceptions — most recently reigning Champions Sagan and Deignan who have enjoyed plentiful success all season whilst wearing the rainbow stripes. Merckx, Hinault and LeMond too were all successful World Champions, perhaps suggesting that a great cyclist can overcome the most fervent of curses.
In fact, the British Medical Journal conducted a study to test out the curse in 2015. They found the most likely explanation to be a ‘return to the mean’, whereby an exceptional season is followed by a poor one for logical reasons. You peak and then you trough. The exceptions to this trough being all conquering champions and riders in an upward curve of form in their careers.
Despite the facts we all enjoy the romance, intrigue and cliché of cycling. So good luck to the riders in Doha and beware the curse in 2017. Our advice would be to avoid skiing, cars and drugs. That could be our advice just generally.