Peter Sagan

Peter Sagan (born 26 January 1990) is a Slovak professional cyclist, who competes in road bicycle racing for UCI Continental team.

Sagan had a successful junior cyclo-cross and mountain bike racing career, winning the junior cross-country race at the 2008 UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships, before moving to road racing.

Following 121 victories in road racing, Sagan is scheduled to return to mountain bike racing in 2024 with Specialized Factory Racing.

Sagan is considered one of cycling's greatest talents, having earned many prestigious victories, including three consecutive World Championships, one European Championship, two Paris–Nice stages, seven Tirreno–Adriatico stages, one in the Tour de Romandie, three and the overall classification in the Tour de Pologne, a record seventeen stages and the overall in the Tour of California, and another fifteen in the Tour de Suisse.

He has won a number of classics, including the Monument races Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders, three Gent–Wevelgem races and E3 Harelbeke, together with eighteen stages in Grand Tours: twelve at the Tour de France, four at the Vuelta a España, and two at the Giro d'Italia.

In 2008, he won the Mountain Bike Junior World Championship in Val di Sole.

That same year he also finished second in the junior race at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Treviso and Paris–Roubaix Juniors.

Sagan was focused on continuing his career as a mountain bike rider, but his management company Optimus Agency approached several professional road cycling teams.

They received four answers to bring young Sagan for testing.

The first three-day test was performed in but Sagan failed to secure a contract.

His frustration was so deep that he decided to quit road cycling, however pressed by his family he gave it a try with and succeeded.

In November 2009, Liquigas' Stefano Zanatta, Paolo Slongo and Enrico Zanardo offered Sagan, who spoke neither Italian or English, a ten-month contract valued at €1,000 per month.

The agreement was later replaced by a two-year contract for 2010 and 2011 with an option to ride mountain bikes for Cannondale.

Liquigas doctors and managers were stunned by results of Sagan's medical tests, saying that they had never seen a 19-year-old rider as physically strong and capable.

During the training camp Sagan destroyed more mountain bikes than any other rider due to his ability to put a bike through its paces.

This earned him the nickname "Terminator".

Liquigas selected Sagan for his first UCI ProTour road race, the Tour Down Under in January at the age of 19.

He was involved in a crash during the second stage but kept riding with 17 stitches in his arm and left thigh.

In the queen stage to Willunga he joined an attack over the last climb with Cadel Evans, Alejandro Valverde and Luis León Sánchez.

The four fought to hold off the sprinters' group over the next 20 km, with Sánchez taking the win.

Sagan won his two ProTour stages during Paris–Nice, a race he was not initially nominated for, but joined the team after his teammate Maciej Bodnar broke his collarbone.

His first stage win was gained on the third stage, when Sagan joined a move initiated by Nicolas Roche on the final climb and out-sprinted Roche and Joaquim Rodríguez for the stage win in Aurillac.

The result also gave Sagan the lead in the points classification, giving him the green jersey.

Sagan's second win came from a solo attack on the fifth stage into Aix-en-Provence.

Attacking three kilometres from the finish, on a steep climb, Sagan was able to hold off the peloton to claim the win.

Alongside his two stage wins, Sagan also finished second in stage two into Limoges and third in stage six into Tourrettes-sur-Loup.

In April 2010 his contract was extended to 2012.

Following a stage win at the Tour de Romandie, Sagan next raced at the Tour of California, where he won the fifth and sixth stages, coming in with the overall contenders each time.

After having become the first rider to win the points classification of the Tour de France on his first five attempts, he went on to win it a record seven times, in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.

Following his win at the 2017 UCI World Road Race Championships, Sagan wore the rainbow jersey for the duration of 2018 for an unprecedented third consecutive season.

Born in Žilina, Peter Sagan is the youngest child among three brothers and a sister.

He was brought up by his sister as his parents spent most of the day taking care of a small grocery shop they own in his hometown.

His older brother Juraj Sagan is also a professional cyclist, and is also a member of the TotalEnergies team.

Sagan started to ride bikes at the age of nine when he joined Cyklistický spolok Žilina, a small local club in his home town.

Throughout his junior years Sagan rode both mountain bikes and road bikes, and was well known for his unconventional style of riding in tennis shoes and T-shirts and drinking just pure water.

Sagan drew a significant amount of attention when he appeared at the Slovak Cup with a bicycle borrowed from his sister.

Sagan had mistakenly sold his own and had not received a spare from the Velosprint sponsor in time.

He won the race despite riding a supermarket bike with poor brakes and limited gearing.

Sagan's first professional cycling opportunity came along when he was hired by the team, a Slovak outfit in the Continental (third) division.

The combination of high stage placings and intermediate sprint points meant Sagan won the points classification, and he finished 17th overall, three minutes and twenty one seconds behind race winner Alberto Contador, who praised him and predicted he would be a rival to watch in future races.