Three-time world champion Peter Sagan left road cycling in 2023 to finish his career in mountain biking, the sport in which he started. But his health problems have not allowed him to perform as he had hoped and he has just put an end to his life as a professional cyclist also in mountain biking.
When Peter Sagan announced his retirement from professional road cycling in 2023, he did so with a plan: to switch to mountain biking and try to compete in the Olympic Games in Paris. To do this he had the difficult task of getting enough points in a few months to qualify, and he set to work with a demanding schedule with Specialized Factory Racing.
But a major setback crossed his path when at the beginning of 2024 Sagan detected an arrhythmia, in full competition in Chelva, which made him undergo surgery. He didn’t stop, recovered and tried again, but his heart problems persisted and he had to undergo surgery a second time. He soon realized that qualifying for Paris 2024 was out of the question.
Now Peter Sagan has announced his final retirement from mountain biking and he did so by competing in the Slovak National Championships where he finished second behind Matej Ulik:
“Today was an emotional day for me … I was back in my country, not on their roads this time, but on the trails of beautiful Košice for the MTB National Championships. Competing at home, feeling the love and encouragement from the fans, and seeing them cheering was really amazing. Thank you. I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who has supported me, from the first time I rode a mountain bike, to this last official race.”
Peter Sagan began his mountain bike breakthrough with a fourth place finish at the U23 World Cup in Canberra in 2009, the first World Cup won by Nino Schurter, but his career was short-lived in terms of results because of his move to the road, where he has reaped his greatest achievements.
Source: www.brujulabike.com