CyclistWhat is the curse of the rainbow jersey?The curse of the rainbow jersey is a phrase thats been uttered by many over the years, directed at bad luck that seems to befall the wearer of the World Championship Road Race jersey over the year after their success. But is this really the case?The inaugural UCI-organised World Championships for amateur men was held in 1921, opening up to professionals six years later and introducing the rainbow jersey to fight for with it. Italys Alfredo Binda was the first to have the honour of wearing the rainbow bands, which mirror the colours of the Olympic rings.Women finally got their chance from 1958. Elsy Jacobs from Luxembourg beat the duo of Tamara Novikova and Mariya Lukshina from the Soviet Union.The curseDe VelodroomTheres not one specific incident that kicked off the concept of a curse, rather a collection of World Champions having lacklustre seasons following their road race victory. Having such a prestigious title of World Champion understandably brings with it considerable attention; people will follow your year more attentively due to the prestige of the rainbow stripes and being a marked rider in races as a result. Which is probably why its so noticeable when cyclists suffer a mediocre or, at times, terrible year following a victory in the UCI Road World Championships.Many riders have fallen foul of this perceived curse most notably around the end of the last century and the first decade or so of this one, with factors ranging from illness, injury, doping scandals and beyond blamed for the perceived lack of performance. Cadel Evans won the road race in 2009 and in the rainbow jersey the following season, was victorious at La Flche Wallonne plus the points classification at the Giro dItalia. But his stint as World Champion was also marked by a broken elbow in the Tour de France and a stage in which he cracked on the Col de la Madeleine while leading the race, which ultimately put him out of contention and in tears.This less-than-impressive season was ultimately compounded by the fact that the year after, when he was no longer wearing the rainbow jersey, he would win Tirreno-Adriatico and, most notably, become the first Australian to win the Tour de France.Soon after, Philippe Gilbert experienced a phenomenal 2011 season, winning Strade Bianche and going on a ferocious run in April to become only the second man in history to complete the Ardennes triple with victory at the Amstel Gold Race, La Flche Wallonne and Lige-Bastogne-Lige. The Belgian would win his home race of the Belgium Tour followed by the ZLM Tour before wearing the first maillot jaune at the Tour de France.In 2012, Gilbert won two Vuelta a Espaa stages before racing to victory in the World Championship road race. The next year in the rainbow jersey, however, he uncharacteristically won just once Stage 12 of the Vuelta. Once the Worlds title was relinquished to Portugals Rui Costa, Gilbert picked up steam again and was back to winning ways in 2013 at Brabantse Pijl, the Amstel Gold Race and ZLM Tour.It can be argued this dip in form was nothing more than exactly that. An off year that coincided with the World Championship title. Even his run-up to the rainbow bands was less than fruitful. But the gap in results was still atypical for Gilbert. Related Posts 3 alternative ways we could choose a World Champion The history of the World Championships rainbow jersey The actualityDavid Stockman/AFP via Getty ImagesOf course, these are outliers. Many forego any notion of a World Championship curse. Take the dominating Peter Sagan for example. Slovakias superstar won the road race in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and during that time was a force to be reckoned with, victorious at Classics races of Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Gent-Wevelgem, Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix in the rainbow jersey.He was especially prominent at the Tour de France. Sagan ran away with the points classifications in this era, save for his disqualification in 2017 while wearing the green jersey, not necessarily the result of any curse but one that did lead to a legal dispute. The UCI ultimately agreed the crash was unintentional and acknowledged race footage was not available to the race jury when the decision was made.Annemiek van Vleuten won her second World Championships Road Race in 2022 (the first was in 2019, which was followed by a Covid-19-inturrupted 2020 season) and successfully defended her titles at both La Vuelta Femenina and the Giro dItalia Women in typical Van Vleuten fashion.Even the most recent World Champions of Mathieu van der Poel and Lotte Kopecky have both had plenty of success this season. Alpecin-Deceunincks Van der Poel dominated both Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix as SD Worx-Protimes Kopecky also won Paris-Roubaix, going on to secure the Tour of Britain plus both the road race and time-trial at the Belgian National Championships.Such notion of a curse was even picked up by the British Medical Journal in 2015 where, unsurprisingly, the concept was rubbished. The paper examined seasons from 1965 to 2013 for those who won the World Championships Road Race or the Tour of Lombardy and described the concept as a regression to the mean, not a curse.There is no curse Luc Claessen/Getty ImagesWhile some folklore element to the rainbow jersey would certainly be interesting, there is no accompanying curse that comes with it. Any lacklustre or injury-impacted season in the rainbow bands is simply one that can befall any rider at any time in their career. So many elements combine for the outcome of one race or indeed many over a season that it would be reductive to reduce this to simple a curse. But lets hope the next World Champions have good seasons, just in caseThe post What is the curse of the rainbow jersey? appeared first on Cyclist.