Peter Sagan:
Superstar Made in Slovakia

He won for the first time in his life, triumphing in his category at a race in Žilina’s woodpark organized by the Salesians in cooperation with the Žilina cycling association.

Along with his brother Juraj (born 1998), he entered the Žilina cycling association where he started training under the leadership of Milan Novosad and Peter Zánický. Initially he was committed to both road and mountain cycling, as well as cyclocross.

The sixteen year old Peter Sagan won the four-stage race Through the Orlice Region, one of the most difficult junior stage races in the Czech Republic. He beat all the juniors, even those two years older than him.

He became the Slovak junior cyclocross champion. Later, he won the title of the country’s road cycling champion as well, with a lead of more than seven minutes.

In July he won the bronze medal at the European Mountain Biking Championship in Turkey. In December, he won the same medal at the Cyclo-cross European Championship in Switzerland.

The Slovak Cycling Federation announced Sagan Talent of the Year, recognizing the outstanding results of his first junior season. “I’ll aim higher than bronze medals,” Peter Sagan said when accepting the award.

On the day of his eighteenth birthday, he won the silver medal at the junior Road World Championship in Italia’s Trevis. In May, he won gold in the cross country category at the European Mountain Biking Championship in St. Wendel (Germany).

For the first time in his career, he took part in the famous Paris – Roubaix classic. He came in second in the junior category.

In June, he became the junior cross country mountain biking champion of the year at Val di Sole (Italy), breaking the Slovak record at the Mountain Bike World Championship.

Still a junior, Sagan became the Cyclist of the Year in the Slovak Cycling Federation’s poll, beating Peter Velits.

He entered the ranks of seniors and managed to come in among the first three even in his first race. In March, he finished second in the four-stage race titled “The Paths of King Nikola” in Montenegro.

On May 30, he experienced his first victory as a senior. He won at the (currently discontinued) Grand Prix Kooperativa race in Dubnica nad Váhom (Slovakia).

In September, he signed a professional contract with team Liquigas, securing earnings of at least 33 thousand euro, as guaranteed for every Pro Tour team member. At the same time, he became a colleague of Vicenzo Nibali, the later champion of all three Grand Tours.

Sagan conclusively decided to continue his career on the road. “Great cycling happens on the road, with Pro Tour teams,” he said.

He entered the professional peloton. In March he achieved his first professional stage victory in the highest-tier, six-stage World Tour Paris – Nice, where he won the third stage. Later, he triumphed in the fifth stage as well.

Specialists agreed that since the times of the German Jan Ullrich, who won the 1997 Tour de France as a twenty-one-year-old, no young man has had such a great start in the professional peloton.

A month after Paris – Nice, Sagan wore the yellow leading rider’s jersey for the first time in his life at the Around Romandy race in Switzerland.

Aged 21, he started his first Grand Tour. In the two-week race Vuelta a Espaňa, he won three stages, including the final stage with a celebratory Madrid finish.

Sagan won in the overall ranking of the Around Sardinia stage race, as well as at Around Poland. During the year, he added eleven stage victories to his collection of successes.

Sagan experienced a great season of spring classics. He fought for the first place at the monumental races of Milano – San Remo and Around Flanders, coming in second in the end.

He became the Slovak champion and added a second green jersey to his collection at Tour de France. Throughout the year, he achieved twenty two victories altogether, a feat no other rider managed to pull off. He finished the year off with the sixth place at the World Championship in Italy.

Although he didn’t win a single Tour de France stage, he wore the green jersey for the third time in Paris. After the tour, he announced his decision to switch teams, entering Tinkoff-Saxo owned by the Russian billionaire Oleg Tinkov. “I am one hundred percent sure he will win a lot of races with us,” Tinkov predicted.

Peter Sagan became the ultimate champion of the prestigious stage race Around California. He also managed to win two national titles when he won both the individual time trials and mass start races at the Slovak Championship.

In September, he became the world road cycling champion in Richmond (USA), winning the rainbow jersey. His outstanding victory saw him escaping the peloton two kilometers before the finish line, keeping the lead all the way through a very successful finish.

“Sagan is a beast,” the french daily L'Équipe reacted to his triumphs.

He won his first great classic – at Around Flanders, he attacked during an uphill climb on a cobble road, approximately 13 kilometers before the finish line. Not even Fabian Cancellaro, a two-time olympic and four-time world champion in time trials could beat him, coming in second with a loss of 25 seconds.

After the second stage of Tour de France, he became the first Slovak rider to wear the leading rider’s yellow jersey. Later, during his fifth participation, he won the fifth green jersey.

At the olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, he preferred to participate in the mountain cycling race. “The route of the road race is too difficult for me,” he explained. In the end, he finished at the 35th place after amassing a significant time loss due to two flat tire incidents.

On October 16 at the World Championship in Dauha (Quatar), he defended the title of the world champion. He accomplished this as the sixth cyclist in history and the first since 2007. He finished the year ranking as number one in the UCI World Tour.