Victim of a terrible fall during Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Julian Alaphilippe seems to be overtaken by the curse that strikes the world champions. Long questioned a few days before the Dean of the Classics, the main objective of his first half of the season, Julian Alaphilippe had pointed out the bad luck that had accompanied him since the start of the season. “These first three months have been up and down for me. Bad luck did not leave me alone. I fell ill and I was caught in several falls, I lost important weeks of training, ”he was moved. But the worst was therefore to come with this terrible fall during Liège-Bastogne-Liège with two broken ribs, a fractured shoulder blade and a pneumothorax. What to question his participation in the Tour de France, the other objective of his season. Read also: Alaphilippe, stronger than pain?’ The season of the double world champion turns into a nightmare and the curse of the rainbow jersey comes to the surface. And this all the more so since in the wake of the first title, the native of Saint-Amand-Montrond had himself experienced it with his incredible failure on Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where he had raised his arms too early before leaving. to be classified for an irregular sprint, then a violent fall on the Tour of Flanders because of a motorcycle. And if he was finally going to keep his title of world champion in Belgium, the Quick-Step rider was much less visible than in previous seasons. No wonder for a rainbow jersey. The death of Monseré in 1971 According to a study by the British Medical Journal, it appears that if a runner generally wins more races the year he becomes world champion, he is barely the season when he wears the jersey-arc- in sky. Stephen Roche, irresistible in 1987 with his Tour-Giro-Mondial treble and suffering the following year can testify to this. Same thing for Freddy Mertens, crowned in 1981. Crowned in 1994, Luc Leblanc had had a very complicated season the following year, playing with three different teams. Laurent Brochard, world champion in 1997, had not been happier with the start of the Festina affair. The most tragic example dates back to 1971 when the Belgian Jean-Pierre Monseré, crowned the previous year, had died, hit from the front by a racing car, during a fair.