The World Championships

The World Championships (WC) is the next most important race in the cycling calendar, just a notch below the Tour de France. For one day in a year, pro cyclists will switch loyalties from their pro teams to ride for flag and country.

The WC is held every September (it used to be August) and the country with the highest bid (to the UCI) gets to host it (Generally, every 4th WC is held outside continental Europe. Last year it was held in Hamilton, Canada). The route of the WC's usually depends on the location of the race. In 1995, it was held in the rarefied mountains of Colombia which was won by Spaniard Abraham Olano. In 2002, the race was held in a pancake-flat motor racetrack in Zolder, Belgium, the same track used in F1 and was won by the self proclaimed fastest sprinter in the planet, the now retired Mario Cipollini.

The reason why the WC is so coveted is because the WC is given a white jersey with a multicolor band, aka rainbow jersey, that he gets to wear for one whole year. Contrast that to the 3 weeks maximum that Lance Armstrong gets to wear the yellow jersey and you'll understand the financial downfall that the champion gets. Look at this and weep- in 1990, the rainbow jersey was estimated to bring at least $1 million to the WC in endorsements alone!

Last Sunday, Belgian Tom Boonen won the rainbow jersey for the first time, after taking the title in a sprint in downtown Madrid. Boonen was one of the three favorites (the other two were Italian Alessandro Petacchi and Aussie Robbie McEwen) to take the title.

At a young age of 22, Tom was recruited by US Postal in 2002 not to support Lance Armstrong in the Le Tour but to help George Hincapie in the one day classics, specifically in the toughest race in the world, Paris-Roubaix. But then Hincapie blew up spectacularly while Tom ended on the podium, coming in 3rd behind countryman Johan Museeuw, the greatest one day cyclist of his generation. A man of a few words, Museeuw then anointed Tom as the next "him". This emboldened Tom to break his contract with US Postal to ride the next two years with Museeuw, to be able to learn the tricks of riding in the harsh roads of northern Europe.

The year 2003 was an "annus horiblis" for Boonen but he came back strong in 2004 winning two stages in Le Tour. When Museeuw retired last year, Tom had big shoes to fill. He wasn't expected to win much in the next 2-3 years but this all changed when we won the top two monuments of cycling this year, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders. This made the good looking 6'3", 180 lb rider more popular than ever, to the point of being called by the cycling crazy Belgian press and fans as the "Belgian Beckham". (A few weeks before the WC, he moved to the principality of Monaco, to be able to live a "normal" life.)

As the only rider in the sports history to win the Paris-Roubaix (he out-sprinted Hincapie), Tour of Flanders (in a breakaway) and the WC in the same year, Tom's place in cycling history is already set in cement. And the scary thing is that at 24, he has yet to reach his peak which is between year 27 and 32 yo!

The only downside of being a WC is the legendary "curse of the rainbow jersey", which will be my topic next week.

1939 World Championships

Dutchman Adri Van Vliet won the World Championships in 1939, but he was never given the rainbow jersey. That year, the race ended in Milan, Italy, with a crash. By the time the riders had recovered, World War II had been declared. In fact, no winner was declared that year. The next World Championships was held in Switzerland in 1946 and was won by Hans Knecht.