‘A chapter closes, a new one opens’ - Peter Sagan prepares to move on

Another airport transfer to get to another race. Another phone call with another journalist to kill another 15 minutes of the departure lounge wait. Such has been Peter Sagan’s in-season routine for 14 years now. 

But this Friday when the former triple World Champion took a call from Cyclingnews at a Paris airport, he doesn’t seem particularly emotional or concerned that he is en route to the last race of his road career on Sunday.

“A chapter closes, a new one is opening,” is probably the most dramatic comment Sagan makes in the entire interview, a reminder that he'll still be competing next year in mountain biking, the same discipline where he cut his teeth as a racer.

The comment is made in the matter-of-fact tone of voice that Sagan famously uses for just about every subject, including the fast-approaching end of one of the most notable careers in modern cycling. It hardly feels like an earth-shattering observation. It's simply the way things are.

As for the last race itself, the category 1.1 Tour de Vendée, Sagan is notably cautious about his chances of making an impact on the French end-of-season race. It's the context and location of the event - in the home of his TotalEnergies team - that really matters, he says. And in typical Sagan fashion, rather than over-thinking it all, his main priority is getting on with it.

“Oh well, I think after the Tour de France, and the MTB and Road World Championships, my form went down. Then two weeks ago I got sick," he points out.

“But this race is very important for the team because this part of France is where they are based and they’ve organised a nice goodbye for me to celebrate my career, too. So there are going to be a lot of things to do and it’s going to be a pleasure to go there and see all the people who are supporting us.”

For those secretly hoping that Sunday could see Sagan raise his arms in victory for the 122nd time in his road racing career, it's true that the mixture of flat and undulating roads of the Vendée are seemingly made for fast finishers who can handle the smaller, punchier climbs well, which more or less sums up Sagan's strengths. However, Sagan is as deadpan as ever about his options of success.

"The race is going to be four or five hours long and we will see how I feel in that time," he points out. "Like I said, I’m coming back from sickness. If I can help the guys, I will, or if I’m riding good, then I’ll try something. We’ll see.”

A low-key race like Vendée looks, in fact, likely to be a very quiet signing off from a glittering career that includes a record-breaking number of Tour points classifications, two Monuments and a unique three-year run of World Championships golds and countless other successes. 

Nor were Sagan's wins ever down to brute strength, even if his 'Incredible Hulk' imitations were briefly a feature of his victory salutes. Rather his wins were taken with an almost insultingly superior combination of technical brilliance, intuition and flair that left the opposition reeling in the dust for years. Charisma has become an over-used word in cycling journalism in recent months, but nobody could disagree Sagan was ever lacking in it.

Yet the wins have dried up in recent years, and Sagan has no expectations of any Slovak media trekking out the small town of La Roche-sur-Yon in western France on Sunday afternoon to witness their greatest-ever bike racer call time on his road career, he says. 

“No, I don’t think so. Friends and stuff, yes, as well as the team, but not the media," pointed out Sagan, ever the pragmatist, albeit a slightly eccentric one at times. "Because you know, my career is finishing on the road, but I’m getting into mountain. biking. A chapter is closing, but another one is opening.”

Drawing up a full career resumé for Sagan, then, would be premature. And from his own point of view, the finish line of the Tour de Vendée on Sunday is not his final act in competitive cycling.

Enjoyment and Olympic gold

The precise details of how or where he will race next year with the Specialized Factory Team have yet to be confirmed “We still have to figure it out," Sagan says.

"The team is still finishing this year’s mountain bike season and the schedule of the next year is still in the plan. All the World Cups are on the program for me, but there’s nothing certain about the smaller races yet. So we’re still working on it all.”

While he has no idea what his first race will be, a ride in the Olympic Games in Paris remains the pinnacle of his hopes for 2024. Yet despite starting out in mountain biking and having a junior World Championship title in 2008 to his name, Sagan insists that this career switch is not at all like he's coming full circle in his racing.

“Fourteen or 15 years ago, it was a totally different sport. The races were a lot longer, also if you don’t do these races for 14 or 15 years you lose a lot," he says. "For me, it's going to be like changing from Formula 1 driving to rallying.”

But regardless of how different and how difficult it may be to adapt, what's certain is that 16 years on, Sagan’s priorities have changed, even if he still has a racer's ambitions as well.

"The main thing next year is to enjoy it," he says. "The atmosphere is more relaxed, you’re closer to nature…but then I want to be in the Olympic Games, too.”

That is all for 2024, though. But even if he is now down to one last roll of the dice on the road at the Tour de Vendée this Sunday, Sagan says his final weekend has too much going on to feel it’s close to being over. As for feeling any sadness on Monday at pulling down the curtain on this part of his career, that's even less probable.

“There are still a lot of things to do. I’m not finished yet,” he concludes. “I scheduled this [quitting road racing] from a year ago, so I kind of already accepted it. But no, I never have regrets, because you can only learn and keep looking forward.”

On which appropriately defiant note, Sagan heads on to catch another flight. Another race, albeit the last, is waiting.