Peter Sagan · Biography

Peter Sagan’s first title came in 2008 in Val di Sole, Italy, where he won the junior cross-country world championship on a mountain bike. The same year he was junior European champion in the discipline and runner-up at the junior cyclo-cross world championships. He was born on 26 January 1990 in Žilina, in what was then Czechoslovakia, into a cycling family: his older brother, Juraj Sagan, also raced as a professional. Before he turned to the road, he had already shown on mud and trails the bike handling that would shape the way he raced.

From mud to the road

In 2009 he rode for the Slovak team Dukla Trenčín–Merida. The following year he stepped up to the top level with Liquigas–Doimo, the Italian outfit he stayed with until 2014 as it became Liquigas–Cannondale in 2011 and Cannondale in 2013. He made his name at Paris–Nice in 2010 with two stage wins: a sprint in Aurillac and a solo arrival in Aix-en-Provence. In 2011 he took his first stages at the Vuelta a España and won the Slovak road race title for the first time, a championship he retained every year until 2015 and won again in 2018, 2021 and 2022. In 2015 he also claimed the national time trial title.

The Tour de France green jersey

He made his Tour de France debut in 2012 and won three stages in the first week, at Seraing, Boulogne-sur-Mer and Metz. He finished that race in the green jersey of the points classification, the first of seven he took to Paris: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019, a record for the race. In all he won 12 Tour stages, spread across 2012, 2013 and the editions from 2016 to 2019. In 2017 he was thrown out of the race on stage four after a sprint crash involving Mark Cavendish; the UCI later cleared him. Away from France he piled up wins in other stage races: at the Tour of California he set a record of eight stage wins in 2012 and took the overall title in 2015, and at the Tour de Suisse he reached his twelfth stage win in 2016.

Three rainbow jerseys in a row

In 2015 he joined Tinkoff-Saxo, and in its colours he won the road world championship in Richmond, in the United States, attacking on the closing climbs of the circuit. In 2016 he defended the title in Doha, Qatar, in a flat race settled by a sprint, and in 2017, by then with Bora-Hansgrohe, he won again in Bergen, Norway. He was the first man to win three consecutive world road race titles. In 2016 he was also crowned European champion in Plumelec, France. That summer he switched disciplines for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, racing the mountain bike event; a puncture left him 35th, a lap behind the winner.

The classics

The cobbles gave him his biggest one-day wins. He won Gent–Wevelgem in 2013, 2016 and 2018. In 2016, wearing the rainbow jersey, he won the Tour of Flanders, and in 2018 he added Paris–Roubaix, his second Monument. Milan–San Remo always escaped him: he was second in 2013 and 2017 and fourth in 2012, 2015, 2019, 2020 and 2021. A fast finisher who could also hold on over short climbs and cobbled sectors, he was as comfortable in a bunch sprint as in a small-group finish, and his mountain bike background showed in his control on descents and broken roads.

Giro d’Italia and final road years

With Bora-Hansgrohe, his team from 2017 to 2021, he made his Giro d’Italia debut in 2020 and won a stage, his only victory that season. In 2021 he added another stage and the points classification, completing the points jersey in two Grand Tours. In 2022 and 2023 he rode for the French team TotalEnergies alongside his brother Juraj. In January 2023 he announced he would leave road racing at the end of the year to target the 2024 Olympic cross-country race, and on 1 October 2023 he closed his road career with ninth place at the Tour de Vendée.

Back to the mountain bike and retirement

In February 2024 he was diagnosed with a heart arrhythmia and underwent two rounds of heart surgery. He missed the start of the mountain bike season, signed for the Continental team Pierre Baguette and rode the Tour de Hongrie to rebuild his form, but did not recover in time for the Paris Games. His last race as a professional was the 2024 Tour of Slovakia.