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Sagan retires

ddraverddraver Posts: 25,328
edited 27 January in Pro race
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cn5jGQbIxBj/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

No offence to Dan, but I think this merits its own thread.

The Colossus of the 2010s is retiring. Somehow he has won everything while still being the ultimate eternal second.

(I think one or two journos had a soft spot for him too. They hid it well tho... 😶)
We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver
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  • andyracandyrac Posts: 945
    The same 'retirement' as few others......going to do something else.....aka switching disciplines....
    Rossi 'retired' from MotoGP, but is now a Factory GT driver for BMW.......

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  • ugo.santaluciaugo.santalucia Posts: 27,896
    probably a good thing, he seems to have lost his mojo. Relatively short career, at the time I thought he would win buckets of cobbled races, whereas in the end he didn’t win very many
    left the forum March 2023
  • DeVlaeminckDeVlaeminck Posts: 8,353
    The 3 world championships is what stands out for me. As Ugo says his classics record is disappointing for someone who looked to have the tools to win far more MSR, Flanders and PRs than the two he did. Was it bad luck, tactical failings, illness and injury, poor team choice ?
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  • N0bodyOfTheGoatN0bodyOfTheGoat Posts: 5,458
    Didn't he become a "marked man" after his Worlds success at Richmond?
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  • ugo.santaluciaugo.santalucia Posts: 27,896
    N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

    Didn't he become a "marked man" after his Worlds success at Richmond?

    wasn’t Boonen a marked man?

    left the forum March 2023
  • mididoctorsmididoctors Posts: 13,111
    DeVlaeminck said:

    The 3 world championships is what stands out for me. As Ugo says his classics record is disappointing for someone who looked to have the tools to win far more MSR, Flanders and PRs than the two he did. Was it bad luck, tactical failings, illness and injury, poor team choice ?

    His Flanders win was very good .

    His sprint behaviour was a bit off at times.

    Overall very entertaining

    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • kingstongrahamkingstongraham Posts: 23,429
    3 world champs with Slovakia as his team.
  • ugo.santaluciaugo.santalucia Posts: 27,896
    kingstongraham said:

    3 world champs with Slovakia as his team.

    yeah, certainly his finest hours… otherwise, underachive for his talent. Might have suffered from the arrival of Van Aert and VdP who stole the show a bit…

    left the forum March 2023
  • ugo.santaluciaugo.santalucia Posts: 27,896
    kingstongraham said:

    I guess it's a measure of him that 7 green jerseys, 3 world champs and two monuments is still considered an underachievement.

    I guess many expected him to win PR three or four times… at one point he was so dominant
    left the forum March 2023
  • ddraverddraver Posts: 25,328
    He's a great (/bad) warning for what COVID can do to a person...





    (...and probably one of my favourite moments)



    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • wakemalcolmwakemalcolm Posts: 340
    N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

    Didn't he become a "marked man" after his Worlds success at Richmond?

    Agree, I think him riding in teams where there wasn't a credible plan B probably stunted his classics record. There'll be more successful classics riders who'll have earned much less than him though.
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  • phreakphreak Posts: 2,709
    When you compare his palmares to Edvald Boasson-Hagen, who was a similar rider in many ways, then Sagan has done pretty well.
  • rick_chaseyrick_chasey Posts: 66,308 Lives Here
    He was so dominant in the first half of his career, the second part feels a bit of a let down, which is maybe unfair. If it was the other way around we'd be waxing lyrical.
    _
  • ugo.santaluciaugo.santalucia Posts: 27,896
    It might be that his personal life got in the way of his career. Did he not get married and divorced a couple of years later?
    Also, some riders do not have a lot of discipline and Sagan does not come across as the most disciplined guy out there. Once you earn millions, it is easy to be distracted
    left the forum March 2023
  • RichN95.RichN95. Posts: 26,539
    edited 27 January
    kingstongraham said:

    I guess it's a measure of him that 7 green jerseys, 3 world champs and two monuments is still considered an underachievement.

    I think it's just the monuments that is seen as an underachivement - the same number of wins as Terpstra and Devolder. Two wins from 17 top tens. By contrast Boonen and Cancellara won 7 each from 21 and 20 top tens respectively.

    There's a sense, for me at least, that Van Aert may be going the same way (1 win, 5 podiums, 10 top tens). He doesn't get to go under the radar at the World's either. But this thread is not about WVA.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • ddraverddraver Posts: 25,328
    edited 27 January
    Flip me I forgot quite how much Cav should have won in Doha tho...

    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • RichN95.RichN95. Posts: 26,539
    ddraver said:

    Flip me I forgot quite how much Cav should have won in Doha tho...


    If he'd followed Adam Blythe he'd have won. But he chose to go another way and got blocked. If Blythe had been someone he'd had experience with and trust in....
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • kingstongrahamkingstongraham Posts: 23,429
    Italy led out Sagan perfectly.
  • Lanterne_RogueLanterne_Rogue Posts: 3,707
    Cavendish is probably the weirdest rider in the current peloton to be thinking "he should have won more" about, but he really should have.

    Back to Sagan though, and there's definitely a recency bias in how he's seen - the last couple of years have felt pretty lean in comparison. I think it doesn't help either that the green jerseys often felt inevitable - I can't have been the only person to gently mock it as the Peter Sagan jersey for the most Peter Saganny rider. Was it 2020 against Bennett that became quite amusing for a few stages as he increasingly desperately tried to shed him?
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  • RichN95.RichN95. Posts: 26,539
    edited 27 January
    Ultimately it's the 3 World Championships that mark him out for unquestioned greatness. The Green Jerseys are hard to assess as, like Zabel, he wasn't the sprinter of his era. I think it's been diminshed, but that's not his fault.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • davidofdavidof Posts: 2,919
    Like others he have said he went off the boil pretty soon after his 3 world champion jerseys. I guess we all expected a lot more.
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  • m.r.m.m.r.m. Posts: 2,925
    edited 28 January
    Getting divorced (which is truly tough and not measurable in how much it affects you), as well as getting Covid 3 times which cost him 2 years while still in his prime in which time WVA and MvdP truly arrived, did him in.

    Still, a very special career and a rider with remarkable talent. Maybe the best bike handling ever along with MvdP?
    PTP Champion 2019 & 2022
  • wakemalcolmwakemalcolm Posts: 340
    Wonder if he'll reflect on his career and think: I was almost as successful as Oscar Freire?
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  • ddraverddraver Posts: 25,328
    He'd have looked even better if Kwiatkowski had gone straight to Sky rather than OPQS...
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • davidofdavidof Posts: 2,919
    Would anyone trade a World Championship victory for another monument?
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  • ugo.santaluciaugo.santalucia Posts: 27,896
    davidof said:

    Would anyone trade a World Championship victory for another monument?

    I guess it depends… if you are born in Oudenaarde, the Ronde might have some special value… otherwise the World is better because of the name and the jersey… allegedly all the best riders are there, whereas there is a restricted pool of favourites at the Classics

    left the forum March 2023
  • drhaggisdrhaggis Posts: 1,043
    wakemalcolm said:

    Wonder if he'll reflect on his career and think: I was almost as successful as Oscar Freire?

    That's a bit unfair. Sagan wouldn't have been "almost as successful" as Freire had he "almost had" the oportunism/race nous of Freire. He would have totally ruled the past decade.
  • tailwindhometailwindhome Posts: 18,251
    At his best, he made the sport tremendous fun to watch.

    I hope he gets a big win this year to sign off on
    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
  • tailwindhometailwindhome Posts: 18,251
    edited 28 January
    Also on the cv are 12 TDF stage wins.

    More than any active rider (apart from Cavendish) and in the top 20

    12 is a decent club to be in




    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
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