Former cyclist Peter Sagan (35) It is one of the largest Slovak sports stars. It can be proud of Three World Champion titles, Paris-Roubaix and Flemish and record 7 green jerseys from the Tour de France. He admitted that the surroundings were convinced of the changes, after which the most famous stage race could win.
„They broke me into the fact that if I lost weight and change the preparation and one another, that I could go properly on the Tour de France. And I say why to change something when it’s good? And now what? I am satisfied, I will win some stages, I will not do so, but Hento would be an edge, ”admitted Žilina and continued.
„For me to lose weight… I haven’t kept a diet in my life. Should I deny me food or what I like to win the Tour de France? Let those who want to lose their lives do it. I was thinking about losing 6-7 pounds now, losing what I have. I get other muscles and then I want to go back to what I did. But this body or how you escape it, so don’t return to you, ”he concluded.
Peter Sagan was born on January 26, 1990 as the youngest son of Ľubomír and Helena Saganov in Žilina, where he grew up with two brothers and sister. He started his sports career in the local football club, but soon switched to cycling and scored his first victory as a seven -year -old.
The same sports career chose his Older brother Jurajwho was also a professional cyclist and for many years both in the same teams. He started to train in the cycling association in Žilina when he was nine years old and was led by Peter Zánický and Milan Novosad.
In the beginning he devoted himself to road, mountain biking and cyclocross. He collected his first great success on a mountain bike when he won bronze at the European Cross Country Championships and cyclocross in 2007. A year later, he boasted the titles of European and the world in Cross Country, but also the second place among the juniors at the famous classic Paris – Roubaix.
His unique results attracted the interest of top teams and signed a contract with the Italian stable Liquigas at the end of the year, But the next season he left for the Slovak team Dukla Trenčín -Merida.
After further successes in 2009, he finally decided on a career on a road bike and in the next, first season among professionals, shone like a comet. He was aware of the experts and the public with the performance at the Santos Tour Down Under race in Australia, where he also earned a nickname „Rambo“, Since despite the unpleasant fall and injury, which claimed eighteen stitches, he continued the race. This was followed by not very successful classics, but after them the first participation in the Paris – Nice, where he excelled.
He scored the first two stage triumphs among the pros and also won the green jersey for the best sprinter. It meant a breakthrough in the career of a 20-year-old young man, who once became a world cycling star. In his first season he collected five victories, in the next to 15 and earned a nomination for his first Grand Tour.
At the age of twenty -one, he presented himself at the 66th year of Vuelta and España, where he won three stages of the gate of the final with the aim of Madrid. His name, however, is mainly associated with the French roads and the most famous races in the world, where his second nickname – “Tourminator” came.
Premiere on „We will give the old one“ He graduated in 2012 and the first triumph booked the next day at the 1st stage (note preceded by her prologue) In order to be in Seraing, when he conquered the Swiss giant Fabian Cancellar and Norwegian sprinter Edvald Boasson Hagen. Together he won three stages, three times took second place, once third and first in his career he won the green jersey for the best sprinter.
He was his first of seven, which he won between 2012 and 2019, despite several changes in the rules, and broke the record of the legendary German sprinter Erik Zabel. He collected them six in the series between 1996 and 2001. “I have a green jersey! For the first time someone won it for the seventh time and I’m glad it was me,” he said.
The Slovak competitor could get more, but in 2020 he was overcome by Irish Sam Bennett and in 2017 the referees were controversially excluded after a collision with his big rival Mark Cavendish from the UK. The International Cycling Union (UCI) later acknowledged that the collision was not due to Sagan’s side and apologized to him.
The Slovak racer had a green jersey dressed together in the 130 stages of the Tour de France, which is also a record and reached up to 77 positions in the top five. In 2016 and 2018 he wore the most valuable yellow jersey four times.
However, the calculation of his admirable achievements is not only associated with the French Grand Tour. He holds other records at the World Cup. Sagan was the only one in history to win the World Championship three times in a row. He wore the rainbow jersey for the first time in 2015 in Richmond, USA. Sagan took the risk in the final circuit, headed for a separate escape in the climb and eventually led him to the winning end just a few meters before the final peloton.
A year later, he repeated the triumph in extreme heat in Doha, Qatar, where he succeeded after the spur and 2017 culminated in the championship hetrik in Bergen, Norway, where he conquered home Alexander Kristoff only a few centimeters.
He became the first cyclist in history to win at the World Championship three times in a row and also the youngest triple winner in history. In addition to him, only Italian Alfredo Binda, the Spanish Oscar Freire and the Belgians Rik Van Steenbergen and the legendary Eddy Merckx have three victories.
During his career, he gradually switched from an elite sprinter to an extraordinary classicer and managed to triumph on two so -called cycling monuments. In 2016 he dominated Flanders and his victory is especially his victory in the Paris – Roubaix race in 2018. In the order of the 116th year of the “hell of the North” won when he made a successful end of the escape, which started approximately 54 km before the finish.
Sagan worked in Liquigas from 2010 to 2014, the next two seasons wore the stable jersey Tinkoff and five more raced for the German Bora-Hansgrohe stable. In 2022 he moved to the French team totalenegies, where he spent the last two years. He announced his decision on the end of his career unexpectedly during the free day at Vuelta and San Juan in Argentina With the fact that he will finish the season and then want to return to mountain biking and try to win the participation in the Paris Olympic Games. His wish was not fulfilled in the end.
He did not qualify for Paris, and he was also complicated by his health problems when he had to undergo heart surgery. In the jersey of the Slovak team Pierre Baguette Cycling managed to return at the race around Slovakia. In the final race under the auspices of the International Cycling Union he finished second in the Cross-Country discipline at the National Championship in mountain biking.
