"If there is one man who does not qualify for that curse, it is Mathieu van der Poel" - No chance of Rainbow Jersey curse striking in 2024 believes Jose de Cauwer
CyclingWednesday, 21 February 2024 at 20:24
In recent years, a theory has emerged that suggests the winner of the men's elite road race at the World Championships and subsequent Rainbow Jersey wearer struggles the year after.
Mathieu van der Poel will be the man in the iconic jersey in 2024 and in a recent conversation with the Sporza, the Dutch superstar questioned the channel's analysts as to whether or not he himself will be a victim of the supposed curse. "Do you believe in the curse of the rainbow jersey or is that a myth?" van der Poel asked.
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"If there is one man who does not qualify for that curse, it is Mathieu van der Poel," laughs the vastly experienced Jose de Cauwer, clearly not seeing any merit in the idea. His colleague, Karl Vannieuwkerke however believes he has seen examples of the curse in the past.
"It depends on who becomes world champion but I don't see it happening with van der Poel," Vannieuwkerke elaborates. "In the past, as a world champion you had to live in the winter with many more obligations and that curse was a consequence of that. Now the riders are better protected."
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- It was already disrespectful of him to take on someone else’s job, totally incompetentMistermaumau07-07-2025
- You never know and too many assume that what you get to hear in the media (even if you do the rounds) is all you need to know to be sure of what’s going on. I found an interesting explanation of Visma’s stage 1 tactics : Visma trying to put Evenepoel (and Roglic to a lesser degree) on the backfoot early on, so they can make use of Jörgensen/Kuss to the fullest in the climbs without having to worry about EvenepoelMistermaumau07-07-2025
- Ouch!!!.... I hope NOOOO, Tadej shouldn't let haters, negativity, envious people and other scum get to him. I like too much the "new" Jonas, but I'm worried about the "new" Tadej.
maria2024202407-07-2025 - Such marriage kills mens dreams. She sounds like egoistic (some bad word). If my wife would act this way without my knowledge - divorce documents same day.xtra07-07-2025
- They're even switching roles in the way they relate to the media, with Jonas suddenly c9nfident and having fun and Tadej saying as little as possible (though he may also be worn out by all the criticism he has got from the media)Hill3307-07-2025
- How many times a rider, a great rider can answer the same shitty question? Of course he’s losing the temper I bit. Maybe he said it on purpose, so all-knowing experts can read what they want into itLaszlo07-07-2025
- Last year Adam Blythe openly mimicked Primoz Roglic live on air. He basically took the piss out of Primoz for starting his sentences with ‘Ah’ ….. that’s disrespectful, I’ve said this before, English isn’t his first language, give him a break, I’m sure he can articulate himself much better in Slovenia! Well done Michael Matthews for talking some sense.Jezla07-07-2025
- Yeah, strange... Pogacarization of Jonas and Vingegaardization of Tadej. . Up to here, roles reversed.maria2024202407-07-2025
- Good decision, you have to avoid crashes. TT and mountains will talk.maria2024202407-07-2025
- Perhaps the timing of this interview was actually approved by Visma (to distract attention if, say, Visma had managed to win Stage 2 with Van Aert, and put Vingegaard and Jorgensen in the top five). Visma are not short of plans, and Plugge in the 2023 Tour admitted to accusing a French team of drinking too much simply to deflect questions after Jonas's Tour-winning time trial. But even if this was approved, it seems have gone seriously off-piste.Hill3307-07-2025
Tell that to Pogi lmfao
The only reason that 'curse' existed was because all that 'won' the world's where on the gear and couldn't replicate performance + agreements with other riders..