In 1919, the Tour de France introduced the yellow jersey to make the race leader visible for the public and his fellow competitors. Ever since, stage races have created different coloured jerseys for classification leaders.
There is a green jersey for the leader in the points classification, a white jersey for the best young rider, and the king of the mountains wears the famous polka dot jersey.
Other Grand Tours use different colours: pink for the leader in the Giro d’Italia and red for the leader in the Vuelta d’España. But the pinnacle of cycling is the rainbow jersey.
Since 1927, every UCI world champion in cycling earns the right to wear the rainbow jersey for one year, while competing in the event in which he or she is the reigning champion.
Former world champions never lose their rainbow stripes, however. After their year as reigning champion is over, they are allowed to wear rainbow piping on their sleeve cuffs and collar until the end of their careers, as testimony to an exceptional achievement.
A meteorological rainbow consists of seven colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. The rainbow jersey is different. Its five colours (green, yellow, black, red and blue) represent the five continents, as do the five Olympic rings.

Curse or blessing?
The rainbow jersey is associated with a lot of superstition. Some speak of the curse of the rainbow jersey.
In the past, people believed that riders wearing the rainbow jersey were dogged by misfortune, but many champions have proven the superstitious wrong.
The rainbow jersey often galvanises the rider who wears it. Norwegian Thor Hushovd, the 2010 UCI world champion, was unstoppable in the 2011 Tour de France. He wore the yellow jersey from the second stage to the eighth, and then won two stages.
Many other riders have celebrated victories in the rainbow jersey. Four riders took the flowers in Milan-San Remo wearing the rainbow bands: Alfredo Binda (1931), Eddy Merckx (1972 and 1975), Felice Gimondi (1974) and Giuseppe Saronni (1983). In 1990, American Greg LeMond won the Tour de France while world champion. Louison Bobet did the same in 1955.
More recently, Polish rider Michal Kwiatkowski won the 50th Amstel Gold Race in the world champion’s jersey in 2015, and this year reigning world champion Peter Sagan from Slovakia won the Gent-Wevelgem, Tour of Flanders, two stages in the Tour de Suisse, and three stages as well as the green jersey in the Tour de France.
At the 2016 UCI Road World Championships Doha, Sagan will defend his rainbow jersey in the men’s road race and Lizzy Armitstead (GBR) will defend hers in the women’s road race. In time trialling, Vasil Kiryjenka (BLR) and Linda Villumsen (NZL) will aim to prolong their right to wear the rainbow jersey one more year.