{{short description|Colored jersey for the reigning World Champion in cycling}} {{Use British English|date=November 2024}} {{About|the jersey worn by the world champion in cycling|the Astros uniform worn in the 1970s|Houston Astros}} [[File:GP Isbergues 2013 - Gilbert 1 (cropped).JPG|thumb|upright|The 2012 world road race champion Philippe Gilbert wearing the rainbow jersey.]] [[File:The podium of the women's time trial at the 2013 UCI Road World Championships (cropped).png|thumb|upright|The 2013 world time trial champion Ellen van Dijk wearing the time trial rainbow jersey]] [[File:2012-Katrin-Schultheis cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|Katrin Schultheis wearing the rainbow jersey for artistic cycling]] [[File:Stefan Nimke WM 2012.jpg|thumb|upright|Stefan Nimke, 2012 men's 1 km time trial world champion wearing the track rainbow jersey]]
The '''rainbow jersey''' is the distinctive jersey worn by the reigning world champion in a cycling discipline, since 1927. The jersey is predominantly white with five horizontal bands in the UCI colours around the chest. From the bottom up the colours are: green, yellow, black, red and blue; the same colours that appear in the rings on the Olympic flag. The tradition is applied to all disciplines, including road racing, track racing, cyclo-cross, BMX, Trials and the disciplines within mountain biking. A world champion must wear the jersey when competing in the same discipline, category and speciality 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 time trials, whether one-off events or as part of stage races. Similarly, on the track, the world individual pursuit champion would only wear the jersey when competing in other individual pursuit events.<ref>[http://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/Rulesandregulation/17/01/66/20150101-BrochuremaillotsENG_English.pdf UCI regulation 1.3.063]</ref> In team events, such as the team pursuit, each member of the team must wear the rainbow jersey, but would not wear it while racing in, say, points races or other track disciplines. If the holder of a rainbow jersey becomes leader of a stage race or a category within it, that leadership jersey takes precedence. Failure to wear the rainbow jersey where required carries a penalty of a fine.<ref>UCI regulation 1.3.072</ref>
After the end of a rider's time as champion, they are eligible to wear piping in the same rainbow pattern on the collar and cuffs of their jersey for the remainder of their career.
==Reigning world champions==
{{update|section|date=April 2026}}
The reigning world champions (elite only) are as follows:
{| class="wikitable" !Discipline !Event !World Champion Men !World Champion Women !Next Championships |- | rowspan=3|Road | Road race | {{flagathlete|Tadej Pogačar|SLO}} | {{flagathlete|Lotte Kopecky|BEL}} | rowspan=3|September 2025 |- | Time trial | {{flagathlete|Remco Evenepoel|BEL}} | {{flagathlete|Grace Brown|AUS}} |- | Mixed relay | colspan=2 align=center | {{flagcountry|AUS}}<br />Michael Matthews<br />Ben O'Connor<br />Jay Vine<br />Grace Brown<br />Brodie Chapman<br />Ruby Roseman-Gannon |- | rowspan=11|Track | Sprint | {{flagathlete|Harrie Lavreysen|NED}} | {{flagathlete|Emma Finucane|GBR}} | rowspan=11|October 2024 |- | Team sprint | {{flagcountry|NED}}<br />Roy van den Berg<br />Harrie Lavreysen<br />Jeffrey Hoogland | {{flagcountry|GER}}<br />Pauline Grabosch<br />Emma Hinze<br />Lea Friedrich |- | Time trial | {{flagathlete|Jeffrey Hoogland|NED}} | {{flagathlete|Emma Hinze|GER}} |- | Keirin | {{flagathlete|Kevin Quintero|COL}} | {{flagathlete|Ellesse Andrews|NZL}} |- | Individual pursuit | {{flagathlete|Filippo Ganna|ITA}} | {{flagathlete|Chloé Dygert|USA}} |- | Team pursuit | {{flagcountry|DEN}}<br />Niklas Larsen<br />Carl-Frederik Bévort<br />Lasse Norman Leth<br />Rasmus Pedersen<br />''Frederik Rodenberg'' | {{flagcountry|GBR}}<br />Katie Archibald<br />Elinor Barker<br />Josie Knight<br />Anna Morris<br />''Megan Barker'' |- | Scratch race | {{flagathlete|William Tidball|GBR}} | {{flagathlete|Jennifer Valente|USA}} |- | Points race | {{flagathlete|Aaron Gate|NZL}} | {{flagathlete|Lotte Kopecky|BEL}} |- | Elimination race | {{flagathlete|Ethan Vernon|GBR}} | {{flagathlete|Lotte Kopecky|BEL}} |- | Madison | {{flagcountry|GER}}<br />Roger Kluge<br />Tim Torn Teutenberg | {{flagcountry|DEN}}<br />Amalie Dideriksen<br />Julie Norman Leth |- | Omnium | {{flagathlete|Iúri Leitão|POR}} | {{flagathlete|Jennifer Valente|USA}} |- | Cyclo-cross | Elite | {{flagathlete|Mathieu van der Poel|NED}} | {{flagathlete|Fem van Empel|NED}} | January 2024 |- | rowspan="9" |Mountain bike | Cross-country Olympic | {{flagathlete|Tom Pidcock|GBR}} | {{flagathlete|Pauline Ferrand-Prévot|FRA}} | rowspan="5"|August/September 2024 |- | Cross-country short track | {{flagathlete|Sam Gaze|NZL}} | {{flagathlete|Pauline Ferrand-Prévot|FRA}} |- | E-MTB Cross-country | {{flagathlete|Joris Ryf|SUI}} | {{flagathlete|Nathalie Schneitter|SUI}} |- | Cross-country relay | colspan=2 align=center | {{flagcountry|SUI}}<br />Dario Lillo<br />Nicolas Halter<br />Linda Indergand<br />Ronja Blöchlinger<br />Anina Hutter<br />Nino Schurter |- | Downhill | {{Flagathlete|Jackson Goldstone|CAN}} | {{flagathlete|Valentina Höll|AUT}} |- | Cross-country eliminator | {{Flagathlete|Jeroen van Eck|NED}} | {{Flagathlete|Gaia Tormena|ITA}} | TBD 2025 |- | Four-cross | {{flagathlete|Tomáš Slavík|CZE}} | {{flagathlete|Michaela Hájková|CZE}} | TBD |- | Marathon | {{flagathlete|Henrique Avancini|BRA}} | {{flagathlete|Mona Mitterwallner|AUT}} | September 2024 |- | Pump track | {{flagathlete|Niels Bensink|NED}} | {{flagathlete|Christa von Niederhäusern|SUI}} | November 2024 |- | BMX racing | Elite | {{flagathlete|Romain Mahieu|FRA}} | {{flagathlete|Beth Shriever|GBR}} | May 2024 |- | rowspan="6" |Urban | BMX freestyle park | {{flagathlete|Kieran Reilly|GBR}} | {{flagathlete|Hannah Roberts|USA}} | rowspan=6|2024 |- | BMX freestyle flatland | {{flagathlete|Yu Shoji|JPN}} | {{flagathlete|Aude Cassagne|FRA}} |- | 20 inch trials | {{flagathlete|Alejandro Montalvo|ESP}} | rowspan=2 | ''Not applicable'' |- | 26 inch trials | {{flagathlete|Jack Carthy|GBR}} |- | Open trials | ''Not applicable'' | {{flagathlete|Nina Reichenbach|GER}} |- | Mixed team | colspan=2 align=center | {{flagcountry|ESP}}<br />Borja Conejos<br />Daniel Barón<br />Daniel Cegarra<br />Víctor Pérez<br />Vera Barón |- | rowspan=5|Artistic | Single | {{flagathlete|Lukas Kohl|GER}} | {{flagathlete|Ramona Dandl|GER}} | rowspan=5 | TBD |- | Open four | colspan=2 align=center | {{flagcountry|SUI}}<br />Stefanie Moos<br />Vanessa Hotz<br />Flavia Schürmann<br />Carole Ledergerber |- | Pairs | ''Not applicable'' | {{flagcountry|GER}}<br />Selina Marquardt<br />Helen Vordermeier |- | Open pairs | colspan=2 align=center | {{flagcountry|GER}}<br />Serafin Schefold<br />Max Hanselmann |- | Cycle ball | {{flagcountry|GER}}<br />André Kopp<br />Raphael Kopp | {{flagcountry|GER}}<br />Claire Feyler<br />Nadine Jacqueline Weber |- | Gravel | Elite | {{flagathlete|Mathieu Van Der Poel|NED}} | {{flagathlete|Marianne Vos|NED}} | October 2025 |} [[File:Wereldkampioenentrui, lint en pet van Jean-Pierre Monseré, Leicester, 1970 (collectie KOERS. Museum van de Wielersport).jpg|thumb|Rainbow Jersey of Jean-Pierre Monseré won in 1970, Leicester (collection KOERS Museum of Cycle Racing)]]
==Curse of the rainbow jersey== The '''curse of the rainbow jersey''' is a popular term to refer to the phenomenon where cyclists who have become World Champion often suffer from poor luck the next year – though, in some cases, the 'bad luck' was brought on by their own actions.
In 2015 an article by epidemiologist Thomas Perneger examining the curse was published in the Christmas edition of ''The BMJ''. The study was based on statistical analysis of the results of World Road Champions and winners of the Giro di Lombardia (which was used as a comparison) in the riders' winning seasons and for the two years afterwards (to enable comparison of results before, during and after the supposed curse was in effect). The patterns of data were compared to four statistical models: the "spotlight effect", based on the theory that the apparent curse is due to increased public attention on the World Champion rather than a decline in success; the "marked man" hypothesis, which stipulates that the current wearer of the jersey is more closely marked by rivals during their year as champion; the "regression to the mean" model, which supposes that random variation in success rates will mean that a highly successful season for a rider is likely to be followed by less successful years; and a model combining the last two theories. The study found that the regression to the mean model was the one that fit the data best, for winners of both the World Championship and Il Lombardia, concluding that the curse probably does not exist. The author related the idea of the curse to medical professionals conflating correlation with causation when considering the effect of treatment on a patient.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Perneger |first=Thomas |date=14 December 2015 |title=Debunking the curse of the rainbow jersey: historical cohort study |url= |journal=The BMJ |volume=351 |article-number=h6304 |doi=10.1136/bmj.h6304 |pmid=26668173 |pmc=4986283 }}</ref>
==Designs== In the past, each discipline had its own variation of the jersey.<ref>[http://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/Rulesandregulation/17/01/66/20150101-BrochuremaillotsENG_English.pdf UCI regulation 1.3.062]</ref> Since the 2016 Cyclo-cross Worlds, the 'classic' jersey without symbols (previously reserved for the road race and paracycling road race) was assigned to all disciplines.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/UCI_cycling/status/692738846207971328|title=UCI on Twitter}}</ref>
== World Cup version == The UCI Road World Cup (1989–2004) leader wore a rainbow jersey with a vertical rainbow.
While the world champion wore the jersey in all events of the year in the specialization of his world title (the road champion wore it only in mass start road events, not, for example, in time trials or in track events), the World Cup leader wore it only in World Cup races.
180x180px|thumb|World Cup Leader jersey
==Other sports== Rainbow jersey colours have been used unofficially by triathlon, speed skating and Crashed Ice world champions.
==See also== {{Commons category|Rainbow cycling jerseys}} *UEC European Champion jersey *Union Cycliste Internationale
==Notes and references== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rainbow Jersey}} Category:Sports-related curses + Category:Cycling jerseys Category:Road bicycle racing terminology Category:1927 clothing