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Peter Sagan and forgetting the Results more and more quickly

It's an insanely fast club that is quick to praise the new champion but also quick to forget everything a top-level athlete has done. This is the case with Peter Sagan.

Peter Sagan les gets 2022
Photos @michalcerveny & @billy_lebelge

Peter Sagan is closing a Tour de France not at his level, that is the level of an undisputed champion. But it's sad to see how many people have forgotten what he did. Or is it just the fact that social networks wink more at those, let's say, superficial people who waste time commenting (badly) on a post, rather than attentive users who often pass over these situations?

Peter Sagan
Peter Sagan, the cyclist who changed the world of the road

TOUR OF FRANCE 2023

Peter Sagan, 33, currently occupies 135th place almost 5 hours behind leader Vingegaard. But, looking back, Sagan took 7 green jerseys (most victorious) and 12 stage wins.

Peter_Sagan_Maillot_Vert_2013_1
Peter Sagan, 2013 green jersey

I am grateful for all that I have achieved and feel that I have achieved incredible results. But I sacrificed a lot for this. These sacrifices now weigh on me and I can no longer do it. It's time to turn the page –Peter Sagan

Sagan once commanded the Tour alongside Chris Froom, Mark Cavendish or the Team Sky train. Any stage, sprint or up/down, was right for the "Tourminator". And when he wasn't winning, his charisma and rock star style always kept him in the spotlight.

Sagan won the green jersey at every Tour he finished through 2019 and won nine other stages along the way. And of course, while he wasn't doing it, he was winning world titles and monument classics.

Peter Sagan is kind of my idol. I'm still a fan of him. Not just because he's a three-time world champion, but because he's Peter Sagan – Tom Pidcock (2020)

Peter Sagan Gravel
Peter Sagan in Gravel version (Image credit: petersagan.com)

At the beginning of the last decade, Sagan helped redefine the rules of modern cycling: long hair and shaved legs, a sacrilege in the world of the road that he questioned without half measures showing that you can win even without shaving your legs.

For 10 years or more, Peter was one of the best riders in the peloton with many records. It's sad that people forget so quickly what he did. It's easy to say something bad when things don't go your way – Daniel Oss, Sagan's wingman

THE BEGINNINGS IN MTB

In 2008 he had an extraordinary year among the Juniores in MTB: a world title in cross country in Val di Sole, victory in the overall World Cup, XCO national title, another victory at the European Championships in St. Wendel and the silver in the cyclo-cross world championship in Treviso. This made many road teams notice the Slovakian talent. The first was Liquigas, who hired the young Peter while he was an intern at the Cannondale Factory Team with Marco Aurelio Fontana.

Then the passage on the road and many important victories that led him to be one of the most famous athletes in the world (3 world championships on the road). In his prime, Sagan was touted as “best in class” for just about everything outside of big stage racing.

Aged just 22, the sharp-shaven-headed Slovakian came into his first Tour like a whirlwind with three stage wins in the first week. He won a classic-style race ahead of Fabian Cancellara and Philippe Gilbert on stage one, a tough-guy sprint on stage three, and finished with a grand finale on stage six. And he didn't stop for a long time.

Peter Sagan third stage Tour 2012
Peter Sagan third stage Tour 2012 – ©LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/GettyImages

Today's Van Aerts and Pidcocks are yesterday's Peter. He was the first to run aggressively, not just thinking about the normal way of doing things. He pioneered that philosophy of winning on different terrains and in different ways. Contemporary cycling was born with him. But now it's time for the others – Patxi Vila, former coach of Peter Sagan

He dyed his beard green, wore ski goggles for sponsor stunts and trolled rivals on Twitter. For him, cycling was sport, but also fun.

Peter Sagan
Peter Sagan in a photo from last summer (2022) having fun in the bike park with a Specialized Stumpjumper

Vila, who worked with Sagan during his Bora-Hansgrohe years, told Velo who believes the demands of modern cycling burn cyclists too quickly. And he pointed to Sagan as the perfect example.

"We'll see what happens with other guys who have Peter's mentality, but I think we're facing shorter careers. An athlete's career is like a bowl of water: you take it in small doses or pour it on your head”, Vila said during the opening week of the Tour, “Peter maybe poured it too quickly. She's had a good 10 or 11 years, now, sadly, she's footing the bill".

Peter Sagan Rio 2016
Peter Sagan unlucky in Rio 2016, at the height of his career

MTB CAREER CLOSING

He admitted he was ready to retire from professional cycling in 2020, but wanting to try the MTB jump again for the last time. Ending his career with his 1st true love, namely the Mountain Bike. Click this link to find all the relevant information.

peter sagan e-bikes
Credits @billy_lebelge

Meanwhile, let's get ready to say goodbye to the great Peter Sagan's last Tour de France on Sunday: it is unlikely that Sagan will win and it seems that he will be happy just to say goodbye to the Champs-Élysées. But the Tour de France, and his whole bunch, will be sad to see him go. After all, he was one of the great athletes who made the Tour (and beyond) interesting in recent years.

We are waiting for you on MTB, Peter.



Written by

[email protected] I am a fan of everything that has 2 wheels: at a young age I practiced road and track cycling (Italian Allievi champion). At the age of 18 I passed into the cross country competing at national/international level as an Under23. Past Elite, I made the choice to take things more lightly from a training point of view, and my love for gravity disciplines was born, training me as an FCI MTB instructor and guide. Now I have made passion my profession by managing 2 MTB centers on the island of Elba (Bike Center Elba and Elba MTB), creating the FANTAmtb and telling in an ironic but professional way everything that revolves around MTB thanks to 365mountainbike and 365TV (YouTube'PULITI dentro BIKER fuori').

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