It's over and done with! After the Tour de Vendee last weekend, Peter Sagan hung up his racing bike. It was his last race as a professional road cyclist. The 33-year-old now wants to concentrate on mountain biking and show off once again at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Even if things have been quiet around the former rock star of cycling since 2021, his palmarès is mouth-watering. During 15 years as a professional cyclist, Sagan took 121 victories, including 12 stages at the Tour de France, and he took home the green jersey seven times, beating Erik Zabel. He has also won four stages at the Vuelta, two at the Giro, 18 at the Tour de Suisse, three consecutive world championship titles, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix once each, and, and, and ... the list goes on and on. But we will limit ourselves here to a selection of the highlights.
Peter Sagan's five greatest victories
5th Tour de Suisse 2011, 3rd stage, great cinema on the Grosse Scheidegg
A sprinter who wins the queen stage of the Tour de Suisse. The then 21-year-old Sagan is part of a breakaway group on the third stage, from which he escapes on the climb to the Grosse Scheidegg - one of the most notorious road bike passes in Switzerland - well-known climbers such as Andy Schleck fall back, while Sagan rides over the crest just a few seconds behind Damiano Cunego, who has sped past the favourites. On the descent, the cycling acrobat Sagan catches Cunego with a daring ride and sprints to a victory in Grindelwald that makes the cycling world sit up and take notice.
4th Tour de France 2016, stage 11 - Sagan & Froome in the breakaway group
What on paper appears to be an unspectacular stage of the Tour de France turns into a Sagan show. Around 12 kilometres before the finish, the Slovakian breaks away with his team-mate Maciej Bodnar, Chris Froome in the yellow jersey and his team-mate Geraint Thomas. The wind-edge finale leads to a spectacular chase between the yellow and green jerseys at the front and the sprinters in the peloton. The breakaway riders save a small lead to the finish, where Sagan relegates Froome to second place in the sprint.
3rd Tour of Flanders 2016 - first monument for Peter Sagan
After 255 kilometres, Sagan secures his first victory in one of cycling's five monuments at the 100th edition of the Tour of Flanders in Oudenaarde - and what a victory it is! Around 30 kilometres before the finish, Sagan breaks away from the group of favourites together with Michal Kwiatkowski and Sep Vanmarcke. On the Paterberg, the Slovakian also drops his last companion Vanmarcke and rides the last 13 kilometres solo in the rainbow jersey to victory.
2nd World Cycling Championships 2017: title hat-trick! Peter Sagan in Scarponi's thoughts
After the 2015 World Championship titles in Richmond (USA) and 2016 in Doha (Qatar), Sagan strikes for the third time in a row in Bergen, Norway. The Slovakian demonstrates his unique racing instinct. As a lone rider, he cleverly positioned himself behind Alexander Kristoff in the final sprint and overtook the Norwegian local hero. Sagan once again proves his class with his third World Championship title in a row.
However, the victory will also be remembered for his sincere words at the finish line. At the moment of his triumph, Sagan's thoughts were with Michele Scarponi, whose death following a training accident in April 2017 shook the cycling world. "I would like to dedicate the victory to Michele Scarponi. Tomorrow would have been his birthday. It was a very sad story this year. I wish his family a lot of strength," said the world champion.
1st Paris-Roubaix 2018 - Milestone for Bora-Hansgrohe
For a long time, Peter Sagan and the monuments were not a success story. The Slovakian often narrowly missed out on victory or was unlucky. After the Tour of Flanders, however, he also managed to win Paris-Roubaix in 2018. In the Queen of the Classics, Sagan broke away from the group of favourites 55 kilometres before the finish and caught up with the leading group.
With Silvan Dillier only one of the breakaway riders can follow him to the finish. But in the sprint on the track in Roubaix, the Swiss rider has no chance against Sagan, who not only wins his second Monument, but also secures the first victory for the German team Bora-Hansgrohe in a Monument.
