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As soon as upon a time, Peter Sagan had his face plastered throughout the entrance of magazines, newspapers, web sites and social media as one of the dominant riders and eccentric personalities. Now that his street profession has pale, Sagan is making ready for the subsequent chapter, racing mountain bike cross country with an eye on the Paris Olympic Games.
Sagan confirmed to Cyclingnews he would race with the Specialised Manufacturing facility Racing crew in 2024 after ending a distant 63rd behind gold medalist Tom Pidcock (Nice Britain) on the UCI MTB World Championships in Scotland on Saturday.
Sagan was nonetheless profitable when he left Bora-Hansgrohe for TotalEnergies, bringing with him his long-time tools sponsor Specialised. After two unfruitful years with the French crew, he has determined to surrender the street and race full-time off-road.
His look on the MTB World Championships was step one in direction of returning to his roots. A junior world champion within the self-discipline in 2008, he quickly transitioned to street, profitable the Tour de France factors classification seven instances and 12 levels plus the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and the UCI Street World Championships three years in a row.
Sagan’s look on the MTB Worlds was blighted by controversy after the UCI stepped in and promoted him and Mathieu van der Poel to the fifth row, forward of season-long mountain bike racers with UCI factors.
Sagan mentioned it did not assist him. “In my case, no, as a result of I completed dangerous however for positive for Pidcock it was good I feel. It is all the time good to start out within the entrance,” he mentioned, including that he did not know of the choice till he was referred to as as much as the grid. “Once they referred to as me on the beginning line I went, I did not do something to ask to go within the third or fourth line.”
With the Paris Olympic Video games nonetheless within the distant future, he faces an uphill battle to earn sufficient factors to qualify a spot for Slovakia. The nation is thirty seventh within the UCI nations rankings and solely the highest 19 nations earn a begin.
Whereas Pidcock mentioned he would proceed to race within the UCI MTB World Cup on the finish of August in Andorra, Sagan mentioned he must end his street season earlier than transitioning full-time to MTB.
“I’ve to nonetheless end on the street this yr with Group TotalEnergies. We’ll see after for subsequent season. I’ve to do Plouay (the Bretagne Traditional – Ouest-France on September 3), and in the midst of September I’ve one other race, and end with the final race in Vendee (Tour de Vendée on October 1) in France.”
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