Efficient and whimsical. Peter Sagan, one of the most unique personalities in the professional peloton, bids farewell to road cycling on Sunday October 1, during the Tour de Vendée. A professional since 2009, the 33-year-old Slovak has built up an unusual track record, which includes three world champion titles (2015, 2016, 2017), 12 stage victories and green jerseys (a record) on the Tour of France and successes in the most prestigious classics (Tour of Flanders 2016, Paris-Roubaix 2018).
A daredevil sprinter also capable, during part of his career, of accompanying punchers on hills placed near the finish lines, Sagan accumulated 121 victories during his fourteen seasons as a professional runner. Its ability to assert itself on all terrains, mountains aside, made it a scarecrow for its adversaries for many years. Compared to the legends of the peloton in his younger years, he repeated several times during his career his wish to be considered the “first Peter Sagan” rather than the “second Eddy Merckx”.
“I honestly feel exhausted, exhausted.”
With uncommon dexterity on a bike – a legacy of his years of training in cyclo-cross and mountain biking – the Slovak had the ability to put on a show even when he was no longer in the race for victory. During the 2019 Tour de France, he was filmed signing his book to a spectator while riding, in the middle of a mountain stage.
In fourteen years of professionalism, Sagan has known six different teams. Since 2022, he has worn the colors of the French team TotalEnergies, with which he has never managed to obtain brilliant results. “Two victories [a stage of the Tour de Suisse and a Slovakia championship] for us is not much, but I have too much respect for him to paint a negative portrait of him,” says Benoît Génauzeau, one of the directors athletes from the Vendée team, Sunday October 1, in L’Equipe.
After suffering from a long Covid in 2022 and making a few appearances in the news section following alcoholic nights out in Monaco, his place of residence, Sagan was nothing more than a shadow of the serial winner that he was. “He no longer enjoys it: I frankly feel exhausted, at the end of his rope,” says Jean-René Bernaudeau, the boss of the TotalEnergies team in L’Equipe. This guy has had so much pressure, demands and people gravitating around him for so many years… All of this has worn him down. The spring is broken. »
Sagan, for his part, would like to treat himself to one last thrill in competition by returning to his first love, mountain biking, during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Qualifying for the event will not be an easy task, facing specialists in the discipline in their prime. But Sagan is not the first rock star to take on this kind of ultimate challenge. If he fails, he will then have plenty of time to devote himself to the hotel he plans to open in Slovakia.
