the curse of the yellow jersey?

[gavroche]

Looking back over the years, it seems that wearing the yellow jersey may be harmful to your life. All the following riders have worn the yellow jersey in past tdf. They all died young: koblet 39, Coppi 41, Fignon 50, Bobet 58 and Anquetil 53. It makes you wonder, doesn't it?

 

[Rob3rt]

Nope.

 

[marinyork]

Looking back over the years, it seems that wearing the yellow jersey may be harmful to your life. All the following riders have worn the yellow jersey in past tdf. They all died young: koblet 39, Coppi 41, Fignon 50, Bobet 58 and Anquetil 53. It makes you wonder, doesn't it?

It's actually possible from similar data that Bobet is not unusual at all. The life expectancy at birth from 1925 was a lot lower than it is now. Some data suggests he lived to a completely average age for the time and some other suggests he may even have exceeded it.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Five riders in one hundred and nine years of the Tour de France seems like good odds to me. Next you'll be telling me a lot of famous musicians died at 29...

 

[gavroche]

Five riders in one hundred and nine years of the Tour de France seems like good odds to me. Next you'll be telling me a lot of famous musicians died at 29...

It is actually 99 tdf as it didn't run during the two world wars.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

It is actually 99 tdf as it didn't run during the two world wars.

<pedant>Which is why I said 'in 109 years of the TDF' rather than 'in 109 tours'.</pedant>

 

[marinyork]

Five riders in one hundred and nine years of the Tour de France seems like good odds to me. Next you'll be telling me a lot of famous musicians died at 29...

There are more than those 5 that died at those sorts of ages (I can think of at least another three). However as I said for quite a few of them back then the life expectancy was substantially lower than it is today.

 

[Sittingduck]

*phew* I'm glad I clicked this thread and didn't discover it to be a Spoiler thread! Was half expecting news of Wiggo being snatched off his bike by a Yeti in Today's mountain stage or summit...

 

[Noodley]

Looking back over the years, it seems that wearing the yellow jersey may be harmful to your life. All the following riders have worn the yellow jersey in past tdf.

I think you'll find that there are considerably more riders who have worn the yellow jersey in the past. Some of them will also have died young, some by natural means and others due to suicide or misadventure.

 

[Beebo]

Marco Pantani and Tom Simpson died young too, I wonder why

 

[Noodley]

If you google "the curse of the yellow jersey?" and look at the results then you'll see just how much of a curse it is.

 

[PaulB]

Robert Millar had a sincerely held belief that he was going to die at 51. He believed the Chinese had it right by claiming the human body has a capacity of x-number of heart beats, after which, death! Millar did some calculations and thought that his heart-rate in training and racing would get him up to the 'required number' faster than had he lived a sedentary life. I know he didn't win the yellow jersey BTW, I'm just pointing out the belief that severe exercise/training/racing regimes exists in some quarters.

 

[Chuffy]

Kurt Cobain had a stripey jumper. Does he count?

 

[festival]

Rubbish.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Kurt Cobain had a stripey jumper. Does he count?

He was 27 when he died...