Peter Sagan: Nobody's beaten on the start line

14 March 2019 09:28
On Wednesday evening, after his first race day in over a month, Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) sat down with reporters, including Cyclingnews, and spoke at length about his return from illness, about targeting Milan-San Remo, and about the new generation of riders who are coming through and ready to usurp him. It was a baptism of fire for the three-time world champion as he returned to action at Tirreno-Adriatico, his first outing since the Vuelta a San Juan. Having spent much of last month training at altitude at Sierra Nevada before getting sick for a week – and losing four kilos, he told reporters – the opening team time trial stage at Tirreno saw Sagan having to avoid an errant spectator on the course, who took down his teammates Rafal Majka and Oscar Gatto. "Today I survived – despite what happened during the race," said Sagan. "I was pretty bad these last six days in Sierra Nevada. I had to stay in my room, sick, and couldn't ride, and then yesterday [Tuesday] I did three hours, easy, and then the team time trial today. But we'll see how it goes day-by-day here at Tirreno.ADVERTISEMENT "I've lost a lot of form since Argentina without racing. I was training hard in Sierra Nevada, but, since getting sick, I've lost a little bit. But I'm recovering now, and hopefully I'll get better. There's still a long time to go until the Classics. I'm here for a week, and then from Milan-San Remo until Paris-Roubaix it's another three weeks, and then another two weeks after that until Liège-Bastogne-Liège, so there's still time." Targeting San Remo While listing three of his main targets for this spring – San Remo, Roubaix and Liège – it's clear that there's no sign of panic from Sagan. "I'm not worried about San Remo," he admitted, "because even if you're in the best shape, it's not 100 per cent certain that you're going to be good. Taking on the young guns You can read more at Cyclingnews.com.read full article

Source: Cycling News