PETER SAGAN TO END ROAD RACING CAREER AGAIN AT HOME TOUR OF SLOVAKIA AFTER SHORT RETURN
Peter Sagan will compete in the last road race of his career, for the second time, on home roads at today’s final stage on the Tour of Slovakia, after making a short return with the Pierre Baguette team in 2024.
The team, who Sagan’s brother Juraj is a DS for, confirmed that the three-time World Champion would be riding his final race on the road on stage 5 after Sagan already announced this was to be his last dance earlier in the week.
“This will be my last official road race and I don't think there could be a better place to close this chapter of my career other than my home country, Slovakia,” said Sagan in an Instagram post.
“I look forward to an exciting race with my teammates of Pierre Baguette Cycling, a squad of promising Slovak and Czech young riders.
“Above all, I can't wait to meet the great Slovak fans once again and thank them for their support all those years, since the start of my career. I'm sure we will have a great week through Slovakia.”
“Peter Sagan will ride today his last ever road race at Tour of Slovakia. Thank you for everything Peter,” read a tweet from Pierre Baguette Cycling, before they listed off Sagan’s top accolades.
These included three world titles, 12 Tour de France stages, a record seven Tour green jerseys, Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders and 121 pro wins.
Sagan rode what was due to be his last professional road race at the Tour de Vendée with TotalEnergies at the end of 2023 and was meant to retire from the road. But even with a new focus on mountain biking, Sagan returned to the discipline he dominated for much of the 2010s at the Tour de Hongrie.
He’s gifted his loyal fans 10 more days to see him on the road in 2024 after undergoing multiple heart surgeries this season. Doctors implanted a monitor to track any irregular cardiac rhythms after having an abnormal tachycardic episode during a Spanish MTB race.
His MTB campaign was all in effort to try and make it to the Paris Olympic Games but Sagan’s dreams of competing for gold ended when Slovakia did not climb high enough in the UCI rankings before the end of the qualification period in May.
With the Olympic dream over and no special invite coming from the IOC, Cyclingnews understands that this is likely to be one of Sagan's final competitive races of any kind.