1 Prologue -- The prologue will give a background to the story.
2 World Championships -- A brief history of the sport of cycling, leading on to the initial
World Championships, in 1927.
3 Sports Curses and Cycling Curses -- This chapter will look at curses associated with other sports, in
addition to other less well known curses associated with cycling, such as the curse of the French champion’s jersey.
4 Stan Ockers 1955 – A year after donning the rainbow jersey, Stan Ockers dies on the track whilst competing in a track race in Antwerp. This story is the beginning of the curse.
5 Tom Simpson 1965 – Tom Simpson wins the ’65 World Champs in San Sebastien. That winter, he breaks his leg while skiing and has a very poor season. Two years afterwards, he dies on Mont Ventoux.
6 Harm Ottenbros 1969 – Against all the odds, Harm Ottenbros claims the rainbow jersey. However, he is ostracized by the peloton because of it, and feels that winning the title was the worst thing to happen during his career.
7 Jean-Pierre Monseré 1970 – The prodigious Belgian talent Jean-Pierre Monseré is hailed as the ‘next Eddy Merckx’. He wins the World Championships at the age of 22. However, he is killed in a race the following March.
8 Freddy Maertens 1981 – In the year after winning the World Championships, Maertens despite being a prolific winner throughout his career, didn’t win any races. He lost much of his earnings in bad investments after his career, and was dogged by allegations of drug abuse.
9 Stephen Roche 1987 – Roche injured his knee in the winter after winning the World Championships. He would never regain his form of 1987, where he had matched Eddy Merckx by winning the triple of Tour, Giro and World Championships.
10 Rudy Dhaenens 1990 – Dhaenens had no major results after winning the Worlds. He was forced to retire shortly afterwards with heart problems, and would die in a car crash at the early age of 36.
11 Luc Leblanc 1994 – Shortly after winning the World Championships, Leblanc signed for the new French team, Le Groupement. The sponsors were a pyramid sales organisation, and would fall apart half way through the season.
12 Graeme Obree 1994 – Graeme Obree won the 1993 Pursuit World Championships, and he was also signed up for the Le Groupement team. However, he was fired for lack of professionalism (he refused to take drugs). He suffered from depression, and would attempt suicide.
13 Laurent Brochard 1997 – Laurent Brochard was the wearer of the rainbow jersey during the 1998 Tour de France, when his Festina team were thrown off the race in one of the most infamous scandals associated with the race.
14 Isaac Galvez 2006 – While wearing the rainbow jersey of World Madison Champion, Galvez crashed into a barrier after colliding with Dmitri de Fauw while taking part in the Ghent Six-Day. Tragically, de Fauw would commit suicide three years later, never recovering from the guilt from having been involved in
the accident.
15 Paolo Bettini 2006 – Following on from his win in the 2006 Worlds, Paolo’s brother was killed in a traffic accident. Paolo won the Tour of Lombardy a few days later, crossing the finish line in tears.
16 Conclusions The conclusions will look at the following considerations:
• Cycling is a tough sport, and riders will always have bad luck regardless of whether they are wearing the rainbow jersey or not;
• Journalists love a catchy headline like ‘The Curse of the Rainbow Jersey’
• There have been numerous winners who have performed really well with the jersey on their backs.
