On his 33rd birthday and as part of his rest day at the Vuelta a San Juan, Slovakian cyclist Peter Sagan, triple world champion, publicly announced that 2023 will be his last year in professional cycling in route.
“The moment has arrived. I want to tell you that I have decided that this will be my last season in which I will ride UCI World Tour events”. And he added: “But it will not be so easy for me to leave cycling.”
The three-time road world champion (2015, 2016 and 2017) has new plans ahead for his sports career. In his press conference, he expressed that “from now on I want to dedicate myself to preparing the Mountain Bike Olympic Games (in Paris 2024).”
Sagan is considered one of the best cyclists of the new millennium. Champion of Champions. Living and pure history of this sport. “I would like to end this season as a World Tour racing cyclist,” he said surrounded by colleagues, technicians, assistants and a representative on a stage set up at the Villicum Autodrome, near San Juan.
The winner of 12 stages of the Tour de France, 4 of the Vuelta and of the Paris Roubaix and Tour of Flanders, among other successes, which have been completed in the figure of 121 since his professional debut with Liquigas in 2010, is in his second season with the Totalnergies and plans to compete this year in some classics and in the Tour de France.
Peter Sagan’s full announcement at a press conference (Circuito Villicum – San Juan, Argentina).
“Goodnight everyone. Thank you all for coming to my birthday celebration. I think you can already imagine what I want to announce, looking at the people around me, who are my closest people.
“We are here to tell you that the time has come. I want to tell you that I have decided that this will be my last season in which I will ride UCI World Tour events. But it will not be so easy for me to leave cycling.
“From now on I want to dedicate myself to preparing for the Mountain Bike Olympic Games, also preparing for road races, but from now on it will be at a different pace and without the same pressure.
“I also want to take advantage of this moment and thank the people around me, especially Maros and Bodnar, who have been with me from the beginning. Maros is my masseuse, Bodnar is my partner and then Daniel Oss joined and of course, of course, Giovanni Lombardi, who have always been with me.
“I also want to thank Gabriel Uboldi, who has been like my guardian, the most personal person I have ever had by my side. I also want to take this opportunity to thank all the members of all the teams where I have been a part, from Liquigas when I went professional with Roberto Amadio and team. I also want to thank the Cannondale Pro Cycling Team, Tinkoff – Saxo, BORA-hansgrohe where I have been for four years and now finally TotalEnergies.
“I want to take this opportunity to say thank you, since I am going to continue riding a mountain bike, I want to thank all the sponsors, but also thank this race, Vuelta a San Juan, and all your team for allowing me to do this meeting with us and also thanks to you for being here”.
Source: www.vueltaasanjuan.org and www.marca.com