CYCLING world champion Julian Alaphilippe proved the 'curse of the rainbow jersey' is still very much alive as he was overtaken on the finish line after celebrating prematurely.
After more than six hours of racing, the French rider, 28, believed he'd won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2020 race.
But after flinging his arms in the air to celebrate, rival Primoz Roglic put his head down and powered past him to win by a matter of millimetres.
Just last week, Alaphilippe claimed the rainbow jersey for winning the 2020 UCI Road World Championships in Imola, Italy.
But he has now followed British ace Mark Cavendish in struggling to compete in the colourful top.
In his first race as world champion, Alaphilippe looked to have held off the chasing pack in a thrilling sprint finish to a near-six-and-a-half-hour race in Belgium.
However, as he threw his arms to the sky in celebration, Roglic nipped past and got his front wheel over the line first in a devastating blow to Alaphillippe.
Fortunately for the Frenchman, he was already set to be demoted to FIFTH for aggressively deviating from his sprinting line and nearly taking a host of rivals out of the race.
At the time, though, Alaphilippe was heartbroken at his blunder.
After the race, he revealed he would never make the same two errors again.
Alaphilippe said: "I’m obviously disappointed not to have won.
"With a cool head, having recovered a little, I watched the footage and I really didn’t realise I’d made such a severe deviation. That was the first error.
"The second error was to lift the arms a bit too early.
"It’s the first time in my career that’s happened, and I think it’ll also be the last.
"I prefer to be relegated having finishing second, than if I’d have won.
"I want to apologise for what happened to [my team], and thank [them] for the work they did today.
"I’m still happy to show the jersey at this race, and I gave my all, but more than anything I’m sorry, and disappointed."
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