2023-07-13 21:02:00
At 33, he is definitely only a shadow of himself. Since June 26, 2022 and his crowning of Slovakian champion, Peter Sagan has not won a race. The man with 121 professional victories, triple world champion and seven-time Tour de France green jersey seems to drag his misery in the anonymity of the peloton. Since leaving Bilbao, his best result is eighth place on Wednesday at Moulins. The former champion does not seem to care more than that.
Since he announced in January at the Tour de San Juan that this 2023 season would be the last of his career, he gives the impression of being on a farewell tour and of already having ideas elsewhere. It is that he does not intend to remain inactive. No, the Slovak really wants to (re) take up mountain biking to try to secure his qualification for the Paris Olympics. “Logically, I should then stop my career, he says. Unless I achieve a feat that makes me want to continue only mountain biking. Otherwise, I will represent the Specialized brand at certain events around the world, as has been envisaged for a while.”
Consequence of this decision: Sagan will no longer ride for TotalEnergies next year and Specialized will leave the French team with him following two years of collaboration.
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“I still manage to have fun on the bike.”
In the meantime, he says he is enjoying the Grande Boucle where he has won 12 stages throughout his career. “Even if it’s not always easy, I still manage to have fun on the bike”, he confides, not in the least bothered to have won only twice since January 2022, date of his arrival in the French team.
Sagan wins Paris-Roubaix in 2018
Next year, the former winner of the Tour of Flanders (2016) and Paris-Roubaix (2018) will therefore return to his first love. Mountain biking is, in fact, the discipline in which he shone before hitting the road. Bronze medalist at the European Junior Championships in 2007, he became world and European champion in the category 12 months later.
He has never hidden that he practices his discipline at heart whenever he has the opportunity and, if he qualifies for Paris 2024, it will be his second Olympic participation in mountain biking following Rio in 2016, where he only finished 35th but without any real preparation. This time, he says he doesn’t want to do things by halves. In the meantime, he crosses this Tour like a shadow.
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