This is not the Peter Sagan we once knew.
The flashy, fearless, Fast-vakian with the cool hair and crazed grin and funny accented English. The man who dominated the green jersey competition in the Tour de France, who won on the cobbles of Roubaix and Flanders. The commanding rider who beat Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen in their prime. The superstar who won not two, but three World Championship Road Races in a row!
That Peter Sagan is gone.
He was replaced by a burned-out, going-thru-the-motions, just-here-for-the-paycheck guy riding for a French time. Unless you are a French rider, you don’t want to end your career on a French team. It’s like that stage right before the assisted living community.
Peter Sagan disappeared a few years ago. No more Classics wins, no more daring sprint wins in Le Tour, no more rainbows and no more wheelies. No amazing feats of bike handling. No cool quotes, no amusing stunts, no Sagan-esque je ne said quoi.
This was a sad end to a brilliant career. The bravado and panache and personality just slowly evaporated. He was still fast but not fast enough for the new generation of sprinters. Not even as fast as 38 year old old Mark Cavendish.
It was a fabulous ride and we shall all miss Peter Sagan dearly. He almost singlehandedly saved the sport for crushing boredom when the personality-free Chris Froome ruled pro cycling. He was exciting, unique, brash and loved putting on a spectacle for the fans.
Thank God we now have the free-spirited Tadej Pogacar to keep us entertained — because we’re not expecting too many laughs from Jonas Vingegaard — who is an astonishing rider but a terrible comedian.
It’s a difficult thing to get your retirement right. Even superstars have trouble scripting their last scenes. A dramatic win in your final race is a Hollywood ending that rarely happens in reality.
Boonen and Cancellara tried but didn’t get a final farewell victory in their favorite classics. Froome never recovered from his devastating crash in the Criterium du Dauphine. A four-time Tour de France winner, his own team wouldn’t even put him on the roster for France this year. Mark Cavendish came so agonizingly close to breaking Eddy Merckx’s Tour record of 34 wins — only to be denied by a faulty derailleur.
Sagan pulled out of this weekend’s World Championship Road Race after 109 kilometers. Just stopped at a side fence and wheeled away without the slightest fanfare or gesture of farewell. He’s headed back to mountain bike racing with his eyes on the 2024 Olympics in Paris. (Perhaps a gold medal instead of a green jersey?)
He’s also opened his own Sagan-themed boutique hotel catering to the bike crowd and Sagan-groupies. He’s now Hospitality Peter. You can book nights in the Roubaix, Flanders, Tour and Giro d’Italia rooms, each a visual shrine to his storied career.
In a recent interview, Sagan described the experience of racing during Covid when roadside fans were far less than usual. He said “without people, cycling is different and worse.” That is just as true as the sport saying goodbye to Sagan. It will different now and yes, a little worse for the loss.
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