Peter Sagan will be missing in the peloton. He also managed to get an autograph while riding his back wheel

The start of the recent Tour de Vendée was indeed the last for Peter Sagan in his career as a professional road cyclist. He had already hinted at his end in the road peloton during the season. But Sagan is certainly not finished with top-level cycling.

On the road, Peter Sagan has indeed achieved more than enough. He is the first rider in history to win three consecutive road races at the World Championships. Twelve times he has won a stage in the famous Tour de France. In his entire career, he has accumulated 121 victories, according to official statistics.

Sagan scored his first major triumph in 2010 at the finish of the third stage of the Paris-Nice race. Back then, he rode in the colours of the Liquigas stable and sprinted across the finish line ahead of the mountain biking legend Joaquim Rodríguez. He overtook team leader Roman Kreuziger in the overall classification, for which the barely 20-year-old Sagan apologised.

“I’m happy because it’s my first win in a big race. But the team leader is Roman Kreuziger. Tomorrow it will be my role to help him. I don’t have any ambitions here because I am young and I am here to learn,” said the modest youngster from Slovakia at the finish line after winning the race.

Sagan was a fan favourite

Since then, Peter Sagan has been collecting laurels and has been almost unstoppable. His domain was especially the finishes, where he showed his sprinting skills. He was no king in the mountains, but sprinters’ premiums and stage finishes were his. He won seven times in the Tour de France and once in the Giro.

Sagan was able to combine strength and technical skill and became a fan favourite. He entertained them by riding on the back wheel. During one of the stages in the 2019 Tour de France, he even managed to sign a fan’s book while riding. Sagan was at the peak of his career.

Mountain biking to Paris?

Last year, Peter Sagan switched from Bora Hansgrohe to the TotalEnergies team and this January, on his thirty-third birthday, the famous cyclist surprised fans and journalists alike when he announced that he was retiring from road racing to focus on mountain biking. After all, it was on wide tyres that Sagan began his racing career.

“I have decided that this will be my last year in WorldTour racing. Then I would like to prepare for the mountain bike race at the Olympics. I always said I wanted to finish my career on a mountain bike because that’s where I started. I’m excited because I’m doing something I really enjoy,” confirmed Peter Sagan at a press conference for January’s Vuelta San Juan race in Argentina.

In the just ended season, Petr Sagan has been a spectator on the road, and the otherwise likeable athlete has also shown his flip side. At the national championship in Tlmače, Slovakia, he took a big swipe at Pavel Bittner, a generation younger than him, who he came to scold after a collision at the finish of the race.

At the beginning of this summer he also received a three-month probation for drunk driving. Let’s wish Peter Sagan finds new motivation in the saddle of a mountain bike and races in the Olympics in Paris next year.

Source: Česká televize, Dnes