Of all road cycling's many prizes, the title of World Champion may just stand alone as the highest possible achievement in our sport. Of course, it depends on who you ask, monuments, grand tour titles and the Olympic Games are all massive victories that make careers. But does the siren call of the rainbow jersey make every rider dream?
As well as the title and the glory, each new world champion earns the right to wear the hallowed rainbow jersey for the year. The rainbow jersey's simple design is based on the Olympic ring colours. And was first awarded to male riders in 1927 and won by Alfredo Binda. The first women's championship followed later in 1958 and was won by Elsy Jacobs.
No rider flukes a world title on the road. Given the length of the races, the strength of the field and the competition, if you win an elite road race championship you're surely a magnificent cyclist. Nearly every champion will have class on the bike, an easy pedal stroke and a naturally graceful position, the two seem to go hand in hand.
Once the new champion has won their rainbow prize our thoughts turn to style and aesthetics. Cyclists have been preoccupied with style from the beginning and the sight of the world champion resplendent in their rainbow kit, on a custom-painted bike is one of the most beguiling sights in road cycling.
Like countless other cycling fans, the Cyclingnews team waits excitedly each year to see what kit designs and colour schemes the new world road race champion will have chosen and how they will look on their often custom bike. Something about the pure white combined with the riot of rainbow colours draws you in. It's part of the romance and the very fabric of our sport. Whether it's being worn and raced against the backdrop of the fields of Belgium in the spring, or under a blazing July sun at the Tour, for nearly 100 years, the rainbow jersey has been worn by cycling's greats.
Decades ago, it seemed the rainbow jersey alone was enough and riders of old seemed to wear it with their regular bike and kit. In the modern era, anything goes, bikes are custom-painted, and all aspects of cycling kit get given the full rainbow treatment. Will the champion choose a simple colour scheme with a few hints of rainbow? Will they go for it and rainbow absolutely everything? And the most popular debate these days seems to be whether they will wear white shorts and match the jersey.
We've looked back at a handful of male and female world champions from the modern era and examined their bike and kit designs. Some rode with rainbow everything, whilst others kept it more conservative and let the jersey do the talking. He doesn't feature in the list but Mark Cavendish is one rider who seemed to prefer this less is more look.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
This is a short list, we wish we could include every world champion but sadly, there isn't room. Whatever the kit they wear, each rider's name will be in the history books forever because, on the day they won, they were unbeatable.
Pogacar's mostly white V4RS frame looks super clean. Is less more when it comes to the rainbow? (Image credit: Getty: Dario Belingheri / Stringer)
Two sets of rainbow bands on the sleeve's of Pogacar's long sleeve jersey look great (Image credit: Getty: Dario Belingheri / Stringer)
The call of the rainbow in full force, a world title is yours for all time (Image credit: Getty:Tim de Waele / Staff)
Where else to start but with this year's Elite men's road race champion Slovenian phenom Tadej Pogačar, surely now considered one of the best to ever do it, evidenced by his triple crown win this year.
Pogacar has a naturally easy style on the bike and always looks comfortable and very natural. His reign as champion has only just begun so we only have a couple of (wet) races to draw pictures from.
It's a simple white colour scheme for Pogacar's Colnago race bike with rainbow bands featuring in just a few places on the frame. A black saddle and handlebar tape match the black Enve wheels and make the white frame look even cleaner.
The Slovenian has worn black shorts so far with a simple rainbow band, though it's probably safe to assume the Pog will break out the white shorts in drier races, perhaps at this weekend's Tour of Lombardy.
Extra rainbow bands on his skinsuit forearms look great and seem to be an optional extra that not every rider chooses. It's a simple, uncomplicated design that looks clean and very stylish.
Oscar Freire
Image 1 of 3
Mapei, Colnago C40, rainbow jersey, does it get much better?(Image credit: Getty:Tim de Waele / Staff)
Freire in 2005, mixing the Rabobank blue with the white of the rainbow jersey(Image credit: Getty:Tim de Waele / Staff)
A white, team Mapei custom painted Colnago C40 is dream stuff(Image credit: Getty:Tim de Waele / Staff)
We wind the clock back for our next Elite men's champion, Spanish racer Oscar Freire is a triple world road race champion and won the title in 1999, 2001 and again in 2004. One of the reasons he features here is that he was the last world champion to race on a Colnago bike until Tadej Pogačar's win on one this year. Interestingly Freire raced on Colnago's as world champion while racing for both Mapei and Rabobank.
For some fans, the first photo of Friere simply does not get any better. The World Champion raced for the Italian superteam Mapei. Already adored for its flamboyant bright kit, iconic Colnago C40 bikes and legendary riders. Throw in the rainbow jersey of the world champion and is it almost perfection?
At Mapei, the team's blue shorts gave way to white to match the rainbow but retained the iconic Mapei 'blocks' which still worked well as the colours were similar to the rainbow. At Rabobank, team blue was featured along with white short panels as rainbow stripes, not bands were implemented.
Freire raced on custom-painted Colnago C40 and C50 machines and his Sidi shoes and Giro Atmos helmet also got the rainbow treatment.
Peter Sagan seemed to favour a fairly traditional kit design during his three year reign as world champion (Image credit: Getty: Tim de Waele / Staff )
The Slovakian star won Roubaix with black shorts and a classic rainbow colour scheme (Image credit: Getty: Luc Claessen / Stringer )
He broke the white shorts out occasionally, but it was rare, this is the Abu Dhabi tour (Image credit: Getty: Tim de Waele / Staff )
Moving forward again from Freire's era in the early and mid-2000s, Peter Sagan turned cycling on its head at his peak, the Slovakian won a jaw-dropping three consecutive world road race titles in 2015,16 and 17 and enjoyed three years in the rainbow jersey.
Sagan tended to wear black shorts with his rainbow jersey in a fairly conservative design scheme with some additional rainbow bands. Although as evidenced above he did break out the white shorts too for the odd race, though it looks odd given how often we saw him in black shorts.
He also didn't really ride a white bike, seemingly preferring mainly black Specialized models whilst riding at Team Tinkoff and Bora Hansgrohe. His aggressive, exciting race style suited the rainbow perfectly and his exploits kept us entertained for years.
Rainbow and gold for Bettini as reigning world and Olympic road race champion (Image credit: Getty: Tim de Waele / Staff )
Does it get much cooler? Sidi had Bettini covered during this period (Image credit: Getty: Doug Pensinger / Staff)
All white shorts with some angular rainbow stripes instead of bands for Bettini (Image credit: Getty: Tim de Waele / Staff )
In 2006 Paolo Bettini was the reigning Olympic, World and Italian road race champion, which in simple terms means he knew how to race a bike.
The Italian star went all in for the most part, fully embracing the taboo of racing in an all-white kit and shorts, with lots of rainbow and gold accessories and accents to boot. There were touches like a custom white and rainbow Selle Italia Flite saddle for the Italian at QuickStep as well as seriously bling rainbow, white and gold Sidi shoes. His shorts interestingly featured rainbow stripes, not bands.
Bettini also won back-to-back world titles in 2006 and 2007 meaning he enjoyed two rainbow-clad years whilst at the peak of his powers. The Italian was a shorter rider, and his in-the-drops attacking style and panache made him a very exciting world champion to watch race. His win at the 2006 Tour of Lombardy just days after the death of his brother Sauro made for very emotional viewing. Tadej Pogačar is also a favourite to win Il Lombardia in the rainbow jersey, as Bettini did in 2006.
Lotte Kopecky winning with a simple, narrow rainbow band and all white skinsuit (Image credit: Getty:Luc Claessen / Stringer)
Though the champ has worn black shorts for some races in a fairly classic kit design(Image credit: Getty:Luc Claessen / Stringer)
Winning Roubaix on an all black bike and all white kit rainbow is a bit of a flex (Image credit: Getty:Luc Claessen / Stringer)
Lotte Kopecky is a double world champion on the road and a multiple world champion on the track as well as the victor of many other races.
The aggressive Belgian has raced in black shorts and a white kit during her reign as world road race champion. A stylish rider with a deadly sprint, Kopecky took victory at the Belgian championships and Paris-Roubaix in an all-white skinsuit, interestingly with quite a narrow rainbow band design, but has raced in the familiar black and rainbow banded shorts too.
Her bikes have been fairly stock-looking with no wild all-rainbow paint schemes, after all the rainbow jersey says a lot on its own. Kopecky is reigning women's world road race champion, but we haven't yet seen her new bike for the coming year.
Lizzie Deignan was world champion in 2015, one of the last world champions to race with classic drop handelbars? (Image credit: Getty:MARC VAN HECKE / Stringer )
Rainbow colours on Deignan's shoes and helmet here as well as matching white brake outers (Image credit: Getty: Bas Czerwinski / Stringer)
British rider Lizzie Deignan won her world title in 2015 and was racing on a Specialized bike at the time which had a custom white and rainbow paint scheme.
I've found it hard to find photographs of Deignan from her year in the rainbow jersey but the racer from Yorkshire in the UK wore custom black and white helmets as well as rainbow-accented Specialized shoes. Her style on the bike and often aggressive bike setup suited the world champion's jersey well.
Deignan was also possibly one of the last world champions to race with classic drop handlebars, alongside Peter Sagan and Phillipe Gilbert. A rainbow jersey and a classic curved handlebar just look perfect together somehow.
Marianne Vos went for a black / white short mix at times (Image credit: Getty:Doug Pensinger / Staff)
Spot the custom Dugast tubular here with rainbow sidewall stripes (Image credit: Getty:MARCEL VAN HOORN / Stringer)
A standard bike here for Vos, the rainbow jersey still drays your eye immediately (Image credit: Getty: AFP / Stringer)
Cited by many as one of the greatest women's cyclists of all time, Marianne Vos has three world road race titles and eight world cyclocross titles. So it's probably fair to say she's no stranger to the power of the rainbow.
The Dutchwoman won her first road title in a sprint against Nicole Cooke in 2006 and only last week took her first world gravel title, proving she is still right at the top of her game. Vos has worn a custom rainbow kit on the road and cyclocross field, often seeming to mix white and trade team colours when it comes to shorts.
There have been plenty of custom touches over the years, from helmets to shoes and even rainbow flashes on her tubular cyclocross tyres. That's when you know you've made it.
Van Vlueten kept it fairly standard at times, an all black bike and black shorts work very well (Image credit: Getty: Tim de Waele / Staff)
She also raced on this custom painted Aeroad with a rainbow top tube (Image credit: Getty: Dario Belingheri / Stringer)
As well as a white version, again with a rainbow top tube design(Image credit: Getty: Bas Czerwinski / Stringer)
Annemiek van Vleuten is a compatriot of Marianne Vos, a multiple world champion, and a definite contender for the greatest cyclist of all time. She won two world titles in the road race and time trial disciplines.
Whilst racing for Team Movistar, van Vleuten rode custom-painted Canyon Aeroads with white and black rainbow colour schemes, something I haven't noticed from many world champions. The bike features a simple yet effective rainbow flash on the top tube.
Van Vleuten seems to have gone for black shorts more often with simple rainbow bands but also rode with a custom rainbow helmet and Fizik shoes.
Tom joined the Cyclingnews team in late 2022 as a tech writer. Despite having a degree in English Literature he has spent his entire working life in the cycling industry in one form or another. He has over 10 years of experience as a qualified mechanic, with the last five years before joining Cyclingnews being spent running an independent workshop. This means he is just as happy tinkering away in the garage as he is out on the road bike, and he isn’t afraid to pull a bike apart or get hands-on with it when testing to really see what it’s made of.
He has ridden and raced bikes from an early age up to a national level on the road and track, and has ridden and competed in most disciplines. He has a keen eye for pro-team tech and enjoys spotting new or interesting components in the wild. During his time at Cyclingnews, Tom has already interviewed some of the sport's biggest names including Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogačar and Alberto Contador. He's also covered various launches from brands such as Pinarello, Ridley, Specialized and more, tackled the Roubaix Challenge sportive aboard his own rim-brake Cannondale SuperSix Evo, tested over 20 aero helmets in the wind tunnel, and has created helpful in-depth buying advice relating to countless categories from torque wrenches to winter clothing.
