The Curse

[RedheadDane]

Is there a curse? Naah, I don't think so. Let me make a run-through of the latest World Champs (skipping Costa as it's too early to tell):

Gilbert: Did have a rather medicore 2013 season, but he also had a rather medicore 2012 season. Of course everything is medicore compared to his 2011 season.

Cavendish: Only one three stages in the Tour, instead of his usual five (still better than the two he got last year, though). However, this was probably more due to the fact that he wasn't the protected rider on his team.

Hushovd: HAHAHAHAHAHA! I think we can all agree that he wasn't cursed.

Evans: Won Fleche Wallone.
Won "The mud stage", held the pink jersey for a day and won the red jersey in the Giro.
Okay, he couldn't manage more than 26th in the Tour, but he wore the yellow jersey for a day, and the day before getting the jersey he got a fracture in his elbow.

Ballan: I don't remember much here...

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

oh well, curses don't exsist, so I don't understand why it needs to be debated

 

[BigMac]

Bettini... 2006 World Champion, wins Lombardia the week after, and the World Championships again the following season.

 

[Lanark]

The myth of the curse of the rainbow jersey probably comes from the mistaken believe that the world champion is the best rider of the year. Now in a lot of sports that is the case (the formula 1 wc will almost always be the best rider of that year), in cycling it's just a guy who had a good day at the right moment.

So after somebody becomes world champion and doesn't immediately start to win a lot of races, people complain about the 'curse', ignoring the fact that the same rider didn't win a lot of races before they were world champion either. Becoming world champion didn't turn Astarloa or Vainsteins suddenly into great riders.

If you would examine the 'curse of Liege' (or Sanremo, or Vlaanderen or whatever), I'm sure you could come up with quite a list of riders who had a disappointing season after winning a big classic. But calling that a curse makes as much sense as someone not winning a ton of great races the year after he becomes world champion.

Just look at a guy like Costa. What did he do before the WC last year? Battled for the win in Suisse and Romandie, didn't do much during the classics, was mostly a domestique in the Tour, but had two very impressive stage wins. If he would do the same again this year, it perhaps wouldn't live up to what you would expect from a world champion in a sport ('the greatest sportsman of the year'), but for Costa, it would be a good season.

 

[Gloin22]

There are few factors. Being World Champion adds SOOO much more media attention and frenzy cyclists never usually get.

With that in mind, it definitely changes riders training regimes etc. He does more media works, sponsor works as well as addedd pressure to perform well. All those factors lead to this ''curse''.

 

[RedheadDane]

There are few factors. Being World Champion adds SOOO much more media attention and frenzy cyclists never usually get.

With that in mind, it definitely changes riders training regimes etc. He does more media works, sponsor works as well as addedd pressure to perform well. All those factors lead to this ''curse''.

Yeah... that was sorta a point I forgot to make.

If you think about it; during a GT you could potentially talk about the "Curse of the Pink/Yellow/Red Jersey" if a rider can't take the preassure of the added media-atttention coming from leading such a race.
Seem to recall that during the early parts of the 2012 season they made Wiggins lead, and win, every race he participated in. Not so much to train him in how to win a stage race, but to train him in how to be the leader of a stage race.

 

[burning]

Yeah... that was sorta a point I forgot to make.

If you think about it; during a GT you could potentially talk about the "Curse of the Pink/Yellow/Red Jersey" if a rider can't take the preassure of the added media-atttention coming from leading such a race.
Seem to recall that during the early parts of the 2012 season they made Wiggins lead, and win, every race he participated in. Not so much to train him in how to win a stage race, but to train him in how to be the leader of a stage race.

He did not win Algarve

 

[Pentacycle]

Lots of riders were cursed without the WC jersey, and it's debatable whether you can call it a curse. It's just that riders can't be expected to have consistent form during their career, and they can either suffer injuries, crashes, illness or personal problems etc.

A peak form season is often required to win the worlds, so chances are great that a world champion will have a worse season wearing the jersey.

 

[Afrank]

IMO, it's about expectations and pressure. When a rider pulls on the rainbow stripes for the year they suddenly have a lot more attention being payed to them then they have had in previous years. Much more then they're use too (depending to a degree on what level of rider they were, one of the best in the world or not). And people will expect the world champion of cycling to deliver and get good results and wins in their types of races. This will put anyone under a lot of pressure to deliver those results.

And sometimes perhaps people's expectations of the world champion aren't entirely inline with what the rider can achieve.

Other riders also will take more notice of a rider once they become world champion. And mark them more, which can make getting those big results and wins harder.

 

[The Hitch]

What people often fail to do when trying to establish rules for certain races is to look at other races and whether it applies to those as well. Turns out you can do a winners curse with so many races. People just focus on worlds because it has those "world" letters.

Look at TDF for example going back almost a decade.

2012 Wiggins - almost 3000 cq points to about 700 cq points. (most of which after he was no longer TDF champion) Fails or doesn't even turn up to all his supposed goals, launches cheap desperate media war on Froome which he loses, not even in TDF team, makes newspapers only for stupid offensive comments.
2011 Evans- almost 2000 cq points to about 700 goes from not just winning the TDF but 2 other WT races to winning nothing significant all season and limping to a bare top 10 in the tour, then takes Porte's olympic place without even an intention to take part.
2010 Contador - Alone proves the curse.
2009 Contador-certainly deteriorates from this.
2008- Sastre- Great Giro poor Tour pretty much sums up his 2009
2007 Rasmussen - ok ok Contador - doesn't get to defend TDF but spits in the curse by winning other 2 gts instead.
2006 Flandis - I rest my case.

Alsso maybe could do -
2005 Armstrong - retires, realizes it was a mistake.


Or even better Giro

2012- Hejsedal. There's an APB out on him, he's been missing over a year
2011 Contador - banned for 2 years
2010 Basso - does nothing for a year then has crash which destroys his 2011 season too. Really not looking good for Giro winners, last few years.
2009 Menchov. - Crashes out of the Tour. Doesn't do anything else, (though goes well in tdf a year later)
2008 Contador - exception proves the rule
2007 Di Luca gets into doping controversies and goes 2 years without an important win.
2006- Basso - really goes bad for him from here.


And if you think any of those are cursed, just take a look at recent Vuelta winners.

2013 Horner - spends half a year looking for a team and has to settle for small contract with only offer avialable.
2012 Contador - annus horiblis follows
2011 Cobo - Absolute joke ever since.
2010 Nibali- Annus horiblis follows (goes a whole year as Vuelta champion without a win)
2009 - Valverde- gets banned for 2 years
2008 Contador - exception proves the rule.
2007 Menchov- ok not that bad.
2006 Vino - Will crash, lose TDF dreams then fail dope test and become major hate figure
2005 Heras - doping scandal

Winning the Vuelta seems to be the worst career move one can make.

 

[Ruudz0r]

The curse will only be there for the ones who think they are cursed.

 

[LaFlorecita]

I think Costa will have a bad year - and now that I've said that he will probably win every race

 

[RedheadDane]

I have a bit of a question; does anyone know when "The Curse" was first mentioned?

 

[Lanark]

I have a bit of a question; does anyone know when "The Curse" was first mentioned?

Maybe Jean-Pierre Monseré. I'm not sure if it's the first mention of 'the curse', but it certainly made the idea popular.

Monseré was one of the most talented Belgian cyclists of his era (and what an era...the times of Merckx and De Vlaeminck and others). He became a pro at age 21, and won Lombardia a month later. The next year, 1970, he became world champion.

In the 1971 season, in preparation of Milano-Sanremo, he was riding a criterium. During the misty race, he looked backwards at a certain moment, not noticing the car parked on the side of the road, he crashed on the car and died almost instantly, in his rainbow jersey, at age 22.

5 years later, his young son was riding on a small racebike he had gotten from Freddy Maertens, riding in a miniature copy of the world championship jersey of his father. He too was hit by a car, and died in almost idential circumstances as his father.

The world championship jersey certainly proved to be a curse for that family.

 

[RedheadDane]

Noo.
I thought "the curse" was simply referring to bad results, not people dying!

 

[buzdovan]

Maybe Jean-Pierre Monseré. I'm not sure if it's the first mention of 'the curse', but it certainly made the idea popular.

Monseré was one of the most talented Belgian cyclists of his era (and what an era...the times of Merckx and De Vlaeminck and others). He became a pro at age 21, and won Lombardia a month later. The next year, 1970, he became world champion.

In the 1971 season, in preparation of Milano-Sanremo, he was riding a criterium. During the misty race, he looked backwards at a certain moment, not noticing the car parked on the side of the road, he crashed on the car and died almost instantly, in his rainbow jersey, at age 22.

5 years later, his young son was riding on a small racebike he had gotten from Freddy Maertens, riding in a miniature copy of the world championship jersey of his father. He too was hit by a car, and died in almost idential circumstances as his father.

The world championship jersey certainly proved to be a curse for that family.

That's creepy.
It's so striking that you have to give it a name in order to find an explanation.
The name is "curse".

 

[RedheadDane]

Now that I think about it; referring to a rider who has a bad season while wearing the Rainbow Jersey as "being cursed" is rather disrespectful towards Monseré.