The significance of the 'rainbow jersey' that will be awarded to winners at next month's 2022 UCI World Road Cycling Championships at Wollongong cannot be overstated.
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So strong is the jersey's place in the sport, Australian cycling legend Cadel Evans' last week said winning one is a bigger achievement than winning an Olympic Games gold medal.
"In comparison to the Olympics, I think within cycling, being able to wear the rainbow jersey and being able to represent the World Championships in some ways means more to cyclists that the Olympics," Evans, the 2009 UCI elite men's elite world road race champion, said after the announcement of his role as an official ambassador for the 2022 world road championships in Wollongong from September 18-25.
Evans knows as well as anyone where the 'rainbow jersey' is placed in reckoning after a cycling career in which he won the jersey in 2009, became Australia's first Tour de France champion in 2011 and competed in four Olympics (1996 and 2000 in mountain biking and 2008 and 2012 in road racing).
Cycling world titles are unlike those in other sports where the winner's prize is a gold medal.
While gold, silver and bronze medals are also awarded to the first three finishers in a cycling world championship, since 1927 the race winner has been awarded the rainbow jersey.
The winner is also allowed to wear that jersey in every race of the discipline that they won it in for their one year as world champion; whereas those awarded in other races like the Tour de France that has the yellow jersey of overall leader or winner, are only worn during the race or podium ceremony after each day's racing.
After their year as a world champion, the cyclist also gets to to wear the green, yellow, black, red and blue bands that feature on a white background and represent the five continents on their jersey cuffs for the rest of their career.
But for all the honour and contractual value of being world champion, the responsibility, expectation and pressure can be a burden; especially for winners of the two highest profile world title events - the men's and women's elite road races.
So visually strong is the rainbow jersey, the world road champion becomes a target for all, in and out of competition.
In a race they will always be marked by rivals as a favourite whose every move must be covered.
Media, sponsors and public will also expect them to win every race. Off the bike, a world champion will be forever recognised and sought by fans for selfies and autographs and the media for interviews.
Notwithstanding, while many riders have experienced a season of misfortune in their term as world champion, many have flourished in it.
French rider Julian Alaphilippe, the 2020 and 2021 world men's elite road race champion and a major favourite for Wollongong, spoke of the pressure at the launch of his 2021 book Julian that follows his first year as the world champion.
"I had to learn to ride with that jersey, I had to learn to wear the jersey," he said, citing as a "mistake" his premature victory salute at the 2021 Liège-Bastogne-Liège classic in Belgium where he was pipped by Slovenian Primo Rogli.
"I wanted to make that jersey shine too much and that's why I made a mistake. You don't want to disappoint anyone with a jersey like this: not the fans, not the team and not even myself. Everyone looks at you, you can feel it, and they expect you to win every race. I've learned to accept that."
That year Alaphilippe still won the Flèche Wallonne one day classic in Belgium for a third time and stage one of the Tour de France.
He also defended his world title at Leuven in Belgium, becoming only the seventh back-to-back winner.
This year Alaphilippe has again faced his challenges, including from crash injuries sustained in Liege-Bastogne-Liege that sidelined him from July's Tour and a recent bout of Covid. He is back racing and will race the three-week Vuelta a Espaa from Friday, August 19 to September 11.
He will then focus on a potential hat-trick of world title wins on a tough Wollongong race route that should suit his attacking flare.
"To do the triple would be a dream, and I will try to arrive as good as I can," he told VeloNews.com. If anyone can turn form and fortune around it is Alaphilippe.
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