Winner of the 1955 World Championships, Belgian rider Stan Ockers (far left) would die in a race during his reign.
Current world champion Philippe Gilbert of Belgium has just over one month remaining to take a win in the rainbow jersey he won last September in Holland.
The BMC rider has been one of the most prolific riders in the world for many years now and his winless season is a departure from the norm. It is a barren spell that will add weight to the superstition that cycling's rainbow jersey is a burden that brings the champion more bad luck and heart ache than it does victories and praise.
In his new book The Curse of the Rainbow Jersey - Cycling's Most Infamous Superstition, Irish journalist and author Graham Healy has gathered together some fascinating stories about the men who have worn the jersey down the years and for whom it did not bring the success they hoped for.
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Winner of the 1955 World Championships, Belgian rider Stan Ockers would die in a race during his reign. And in this extract from his new book, Graham Healy outlines how the tragic Ockers died in a year that should have been the pinnacle of a long life to come.
Towards the end of September, Ockers was invited to take part in the Festival der Wegrenners at his home velodrome, the Sportpaleis in Antwerp. He had great experience riding on the track, and earlier that season had broken the world hour record behind a derny. This was to be his 116th appearance at the track.
Competing alongside Ockers would be some of the other big stars of the sport including Van Steenbergen, Rik van Looy and Fred de Bruyne, in addition to Charly Gaul, Roger Walkowiak and Bernard Gauthier.
On the second night of the event, a break went clear in one of the events and Ockers went to the front of the group to try and bring them back. Ockers looked back to see who was on his wheel, and in doing so, didn’t notice that one of the other riders, Nest Sterckx, had stopped on the track to check his wheel.
There was a massive collision as Ockers rode into Sterckx. Rik van Looy and Gerrit Voorting were also involved, but Voorting and Sterckx, were able to walk away. Van Looy and Ockers were more seriously hurt, as they both lay motionless on the track. They were taken away by stretcher to be seen by the Red Cross.
Van Looy regained consciousness after a few minutes, and Ockers was initially diagnosed with a broken collarbone and concussion. However, it would turn out that his injuries were much more serious than first suspected.
He was taken to nearby Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital in Merksem, and the following morning, the full extent of his injuries were realised. He had suffered a skull fracture and also four ribs were broken. Overnight he had drifted in and out of consciousness but eventually fell into a coma.
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His situation deteriorated rapidly and later that day, he was given the last rites by a priest. Two trauma specialists arrived from Bruges and Brussels, and decided to bore into his skull to try and stop the haemorrhaging, but it was to no avail.
Two days after the accident, Ockers died of severe head injuries. An estimated 10,000 mourners attended his funeral, and amongst those who was said to have taken his death particularly badly, was an eleven year-old Eddy Merckx.
Merckx would later say: “He was my hero when I was a young boy, but not because of the Classics. He was always in the news during the Tour de France, and the Tour de France was everything to me.”
Ockers left behind a widow, Rosa and six year old son Eddy. A race was organised the following year in his memory.
The first edition of the Grand Prix Stan Ockers was won appropriately enough by his friend, Raymond Impanis, who Stan had refused to chase down two years earlier in Paris-Roubaix. Unfortunately, the race named after him was discontinued after 1963.
Two memorials were later built in memory of Ockers. One stands at the scene of his demise, the velodrome at Antwerp, whilst the other has been built at the summit of the Côte des Forges.
The climb was chosen as it was where he had gone clear to win Flèche-Wallonne, and it’s still regularly used as part of the route of one of Ockersother greatest triumphs, Liège-Bastogne- Liège.
Ockers had joined the long list of riders who had crashed and died during a race, and in doing so, became the first cyclist linked with the curse of the rainbow jersey.
The Curse of the Rainbow Jersey - Cycling's Most Infamous Superstition, is by Graham Healy and is published by Brekaway books and is available to buy at http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Curse-Rainbow-Jersey-Superstition/dp/1621240010/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376574459&sr=8-1&keywords=graham+healy
