Peter Sagan: Cycling icon announces his departure due to..

September 21, 2024 footballmedia24 Other sport 0

Peter Sagan to retire from road cycling, eyes mountain bike at 2024 Paris Olympics

Peter Sagan said 2023 will be his final year as a professional road cyclist and that he will target the 2024 Olympics in mountain bike.

The Slovakian made the announcement on his 33rd birthday in a social media video. He said he made the decision “quite some time ago.”

Peter Sagan sa čoskoro vráti na cestu. Bude štartovať na etapových pretekoch u našich susedov | TVNOVINY.sk

“I always said I would like to finish my career on the mountain bike, because I started my career on the mountain bike,” Sagan said in a press conference, according to Cyclingnews.com. “It gives me some pleasure at the end of my career because I’m doing something I really enjoy.

“It’s important for me to spend time with my son Marlon and to see life from different angles, and not just as a cyclist. It was never my dream to race or to be a professional rider until 40 or 50. I think it’s time now. And if I am going to be able to finish my career in Paris at the Olympics Games, that’s going to be something nice for me.”

Sagan is a record seven-time Tour de France green jersey champion as best sprinter. He has 12 individual stage wins (the last in 2019), second-most among active riders behind Mark Cavendish‘s record-tying 34.

Peter Sagan Is Unlike Any Other Racer

At the Olympics, Sagan was 34th in the road race in 2012 and 35th in the mountain bike in 2016. He missed the Tokyo Games after surgery to treat an infection in his right knee stemming from a 2021 Tour de France crash.

Sagan won the world junior title in mountain biking at age 18 in 2008 before his road racing career, which included three consecutive world road race titles from 2015-17.

Of qualifying for Paris in the mountain bike, he said, “We’ll see whether it is even possible, but I think it can be another nice adventure.

Peter Sagan is set to resume his road racing career from Wednesday at the Tour of Hungary. One of the greatest sprinters of all time, the Slovakian initially retired at the end of last season to focus on mountain biking. He had the aim of competing in that discipline at the Paris Olympics, but his preparations have been thrown into disarray after two surgeries.

Peter Sagan retired from road racing at the end of the 2023 season but is making a sensational return at the Tour de Hongrie this week for Pierre Baguette.
The great sprinter and winner of multiple green jerseys at the Tour de France had switched his focus from road racing to mountain biking for 2024, with the intention of qualifying for the Paris Olympics.
His mountain bike plans were put on hold following surgery in February for abnormal heart rhythms, with a second follow up surgery required in March. As such, Sagan’s spring has been disrupted, which had led to his change of mind as he seeks to build fitness.
“My expectation is to have some race kilometres, and for sure if I finish the Tour of Hungary it will put me at another level,” he said to the media before the opening stage, as reported by Cycling News.
“I have no big ideas to do something because I know it’s very hard – there are some riders who are training from October, November, and December and did big preparation before this race, and I’m out of this because of the heart surgery and recovery. I lost a lot of preparation.
“After that, I’ll see how I feel – if my problem is solved or it’s going to come back. Nobody knows. I have no expectations. The next plan I’m going to do I’ll set after Tour of Hungary.”
Sagan had a glittering road race career, with seven green jerseys in the Tour de France, 12 individual stage wins and three road world titles amongst his many achievements.
Peter Sagan To Race In The 2018 Santos Tour Down Under
He began his career in mountain bikes though – and has yet to add an Olympic medal to his trophy cabinet. Whether he’ll be able to later this year remains in doubt, but this week’s race should give him an indication of whether his recovery is heading in the right direction.
The top World Tour teams might be racing in the Giro d’Italia at the moment, but there is one familiar race on the start line for Sagan to go head-to-head with his old rival Mark Cavendish, who is riding for Astana Qazaqstan.
Cavendish is another who was supposed to be retired by now – and yet, the duo could well find themselves at the sharp end with the first stage very much one for the sprinters

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