In 2015, fourth place finishes for Peter Sagan at Milan-San Remo and Ronde van Vlaanderen left his team owner Oleg Tinkov musing publicly about cutting his star rider’s large salary. However, the Slovakian picked up steam with overall victory at the Tour of California plus stages at the Tour de Suisse while going on to double up at the Slovakian Championships in the time-trial and road race.
While stage wins eluded Sagan at the Tour de France, he did secure the points classification for the fourth consecutive year and went on to win a stage at the Vuelta a España, however he was forced to abandon after being taken out by the driver of an official race motorbike.
Two weeks later and Sagan would be on the start line for the men’s road race at the World Championships, where he was considered a favourite against a flood of talent in the Belgian team that included Tom Boonen, Greg Van Avermaet and Philippe Gilbert, as well as the likes of John Degenkolb for Germany.
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The races
The 2015 World Championships took place in Richmond, USA. The men’s road race was held on a 16.2km circuit that riders covered 16 times, passing over three short yet draining climbs and some brief cobbled segments to bring a Flanders-esque flair to the events.
Sagan attacked on the final cobbled climb of 23rd Street in the last 3km and launched into a supertuck on the downhill. Van Avermaet and Norway’s Edvald Boasson Hagen tried to catch him but couldn’t match Sagan’s speed on the descent. He timed his breakaway to perfection; while constantly in the sights of others, they lacked the ability to close the gap and Sagan won the World Championships title for the first time.
In Doha, Qatar, the following year, crosswinds shattered the peloton and a select group contested the win after 257.3km. Despite big names such as Mark Cavendish, Tom Boonen, Michael Matthews and Alexander Kristoff trying to thwart any repeat of the previous year, Sagan became the first man since Paolo Bettini in 2007 to defend his title.
2017 would mark the last victory for the Slovakian at the World Championships. The course in Bergen, Norway, was 276.5km and incorporated a 19.1km circuit with 12 ascents of the Salmon Hill climb. An attacking Julian Alaphilippe was reeled back in and the race came down to yet another sprint finish.
Only millimetres separated Sagan from Kristoff at the finish, as he managed to edge his tyre in front for a ‘threepeat’, joining the ranks of Alfredo Binda, Óscar Freire, Rik van Steenbergen and Eddy Merckx. But in one category he stands alone – as the only man to win three titles consecutively.
The rainbow jersey
In those three years, while riding mainly for the Tinkoff team, Sagan racked up an impressive palmarès in the rainbow jersey. From the dusty cobbles he rose as champion of Gent-Wevelgem, Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix, while also racing to victory in stages at the Tour de Suisse, Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour de France – adding a spate of green jerseys to his name too.
If the ‘curse of the rainbow jersey’ really does exist, it was nowhere to be found with Sagan, save from his Tour de France disqualification in 2017.
In 2022, Sagan left that squad and dropped down to ProTeam level with TotalEnergies. He later stepped away from road racing altogether to focus on mountain biking for the Olympics, but that too was curtailed when he was diagnosed with a cardiac arrhythmia.
Sagan briefly returned to the road with the Pierre Baguette Cycling squad and ended his road career at his home race, the Tour of Slovakia, this year.
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