Peter Sagan, the renowned three-time road world champion, is closing the chapter on his illustrious professional racing career this Sunday at the Slovakian Mountain Bike Championships.
Sagan has been gradually winding down his career over the past season and a half. He raced his final WorldTour event and participated in the World Championships last year with TotalEnergies. This season, he stepped down to the Continental level, racing with Slovak team Pierre Baguette, in an effort to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games and compete in his final road races.
On Sunday, Pierre Baguette announced that Sagan would take to the course for the last time in the cross-country race at the National Mountain Bike Championships. “After the health problems that Peter Sagan had this year, he decided to end his professional career also in mountain biking today at the Slovak National MTB Championships in Košice,” the team stated. “Today’s XCO at 16:00 will be his last-ever professional UCI race in any discipline.”
Sagan’s health challenges included undergoing two rounds of heart surgery in February and March following an abnormal tachycardic episode during a mountain bike race in Spain. Despite these setbacks, he returned to competition, participating in the Tour de Hongrie and several additional mountain bike races. However, in May, he received the disappointing news that Slovakia had not qualified any riders for the Paris Olympics mountain bike events.
Sagan’s final significant appearance on the road was at his home stage race, the Tour of Slovakia, in June. Reflecting on his journey, Sagan shared on Instagram, “I still remember my first stage at the Tour Down Under on January 19th, 2010. I was just a young kid, not even 20 yet, and I would never have imagined back then that I would have such a long and fruitful career in this sport. It’s been a long road, with its ups and downs, and ending my road racing career in the Tour of Slovakia, surrounded by the support and love of my fellow Slovaks, is a memory I will cherish forever.”
As Sagan draws his professional career to a close, he leaves behind a legacy marked by remarkable achievements and an enduring impact on the world of cycling.
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