Rainbow jersey
The Rainbow jersey is the distinctive jersey worn by the reigning world champion in a bicycle racing discipline. The jersey is predominantly white with five horizontal bands of colour around the chest. From the bottom up the colours are: green, yellow, black, red and blue. The tradition is applied to all disciplines, including road racing, track racing and cyclo-cross.
A world champion is entitled to wear the jersey when competing in the same discipline for which the title was won. For example, the world road race champion would wear the garment while competing in stage races and one-day races, but would not be entitled to wear it during team time trials or individual time trials. Similarly, on the track, the world individual pursuit champion would only wear the jersey when competing in other individual pursuit events.
In team events, such as the team pursuit, each member of the team would be allowed to wear the rainbow jersey, but – again – would not wear it while racing in, say, points races or other track disciplines.
The rainbow jersey helps make a world champion easier to spot for spectators, but it also has the effect of making the title-holder more visible to other competitors, particularly in road racing situations. This can be a disadvantage as it makes it more difficult for the world champion to launch an attack, while other riders will quickly seek to take advantage if they notice the rainbow jersey crashes or suffers a mechanical problem, etc.
After the end of a rider's championship year, he or she is eligible to wear an armband in the same rainbow pattern for the remainder of his or her career. Unlike the jersey, which can only be worn in the discipline in which the title was won, the armband may be worn in any discipline.
The "Rainbow Jersey" is not to be confused with the uniforms worn by the Houston Astros baseball team in the 1970s.
Curse of the Rainbow Jersey
The Curse of the Rainbow Jersey is a popular term to refer to the fact that cyclists who have become World Champion often have a lot of bad luck the next year - though, in some cases, the 'bad luck' was brought on by their own actions.
Notable 'victims' of the curse include the 1970 world champion Jean-Pierre Monseré who died wearing the rainbow jersey in March 1971 and Laurent Brochard, the world champion of 1997, who became involved in a doping scandal a year later. The 2003 winner, Spaniard Igor Astarloa, switched to the French team Cofidis for the 2004 season which almost immediately suspended itself from racing due to doping allegations against several members of the team. In response to this, Astarloa switched first to the Lampre team, and then the Barloworld team. He has had a very quiet career since his 2003 victory. The 2004 World Road Champion Oscar Freire was on good form throughout the spring, but developed a saddle sore mid-season that ended his hopes for a second consecutive title on home turf in Spain.
Tom Simpson (UK) won the world title in 1965. During the following winter (Jan/Feb 1966) he broke his leg skiing thus missing out on his most lucrative benefits from wearing the rainbow jersey.
In August 2004 British professional cyclist David Millar was suspended for two years by the British Cycling Federation, stripped of his 2003 World Time Trial Championship jersey, and given a $1,600 fine, after confessing to the use of EPO in 2001 and 2003.
