Peter Sagan Races to Finish Road Career with a Few More Victories
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It's been a while since Peter Sagan has taken a race win, but this weekend, he cinched what may be the final road race victory in his illustrious career. With retirement from the road looming just weeks away, Sagan took the win in a 44-kilometer derny race in Belgium.
Never hear of a ‘derny’ race? It’s not something we see often in the U.S., but it’s still a popular style of racing in some parts of Europe. Picture a keirin race on the track—where riders are led by a motorbike—but done on the road. In the case of the race in Gent that Sagan won this weekend, it was a criterium led by a derny motorbike. The race itself isn’t overly noteworthy—it was the third 44-kilometer race of the day and a part of the Wetteren Derny Festival—but the 10,000 fans who showed up to cheer riders on made it feel like the final stage of the Tour de France.
In October, the Tour de Vendée will be Sagan’s final road race of his pro career, which means any race he enters between now and then are last chances to leave the sport with a couple more wins.
But lest you think Sagan is leaving cycling behind, don’t worry. He’s simply switching to the mountain bike. He’s teased fans by dabbling in XC MTB racing in the last few years, flatting early on in the 2016 Olympic MTB race before going on to finish 35th, and most recently coming 63rd at cross-country World Championships.
But despite no major MTB results in recent years—though his junior palmares are impressive and include a World Championship title—the big teams are still interested in bringing the multi-time road World Champion into the fold, betting on him to be able to quickly get up to speed once he can focus his efforts on off-road. He'll join the Specialized Mountain Bike factory team after retiring from TotalEnergies.
He’s expressed interest in heading to the Paris Olympics in 2024 for mountain biking, telling reporters that while he doesn’t regret his road career, mountain biking was his first love. But it's still TBD whether or not he’ll be able to get enough UCI points and race results on the mountain bike to qualify Slovakia for a spot in the Olympics, so he’s facing a tough battle before the race itself.
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