I hope he has fun and enjoys the experience. I hope we all do.
I’m really new to biking but being a world tour cyclist looks just absolutely [radio edit] miserable. Why wouldn’t someone want to go into a second-career quasi-retirement that has hot dogs on course, mechanical bulls, and bacon & bourbon at aid stations?
You have to remember the pros love riding their bikes as well, they just turn it into a job for 10 - 20 years. Hope he has fun.
The only thing Sagan is doing is lending his immense relevance to Unbound. I for one am super excited to race with him… for about 30s.
There’s more interest in the 100 than the 200. So perhaps a good move. It just sucks for the 10-15 amateurs who have a chance for podium.
This really shuts up the folks who say he has trouble closing the deal. A few of those years his wins equal 2nd and 3rd combined, and others it’s close enough to 2nds and 3rds. On Unbound, it is sort of a big deal if he’s the first euro pro to win a big gravel race. Sure, pros have won them, but not stars.
I have absolutely no information on which to base my opinion, but I would bet that Sagan is not going there to win the race.
I think he is going to fly the Specialized flag, and maybe he’ll give it a good dig for the first half of the race, but then he and Oss peel off and use it as a training ride. I think him walking away from this completely healthy is the priority.
He’s been training in Utah for the last month, and is heading back to Europe for the Tour de Suisse after Unbound … so he didn’t come over here just for this event.
Again, just my 2c and uninformed opinion. There will probably be 10-15 amateurs, conversely, who will get to walk around the rest of their lives saying, “I beat Peter Sagan in a bike race.”
100% agree. I’d be wildly surprised if he’s there for anything other than PR/a fun ride.
Does he race the Sagando? I always figured that was sort of a fun ride for him.
I saw a video of him shredding downhill on a MTB. He certainly has the skills to win it without trying to kill himself. I could be wrong, but Ithink the competitive juices are there and he is going for the win.
Ah, the old “if you can’t do what he does, you can’t criticize him” argument.
Original. 
Man, some people really get balled up when their personal heroes get criticized.
Right, feels similar to Specialized promoting Evenepoel and Cattaneo riding the wafer at BWR Kansas last year.
I think you are right on. If he were there to race, he would be in the 200. This is just a very easy sponsorship opportunity since he has been in the states the past 3-4 weeks at elevation in Park City. Should be fun for him and all his fellow racers (who even know who he is). After all the setbacks he has had this year so far, I can’t see him taking any risks surrounded by amateurs on mixed terrain. The risk of pulling a Quinn Simmons and ruining the few remaining targets he has on his calendar this year is too high.
At his Fondo one year he was ripping around, but then people were getting way too close to him and/or taking weird lines in front of him. At one point there was even a pretty heavy crash in front of him. After that, he pulled the plug and cruised home. Think he learned his lesson there about how far over their ski’s some people will go to see if they can hang with him.
Sagan’s bar is set ridiculously high. He “only” got 5th at Milan San Remo this year. The guy has nothing left to prove/achieve. A 4th rainbow or another monument win would do nothing for him.
I hope he stays in gravel after this weekend. His personality fits the light-hearted culture of the sport.
I have said before that this is the most likely career path for him…he is clearly no longer interested in the road and really hasn’t been for some time.
He can parlay his popularity easily into gravel where he can get plenty of sponsorship opportunities.
But the problem is that he can’t get enough sponsorship to offset his bloated TE contract, so he’ll stay on the road for the foreseeable future.
Not sure. They do that for Ironman, but it makes more sense with the craziness of the swim.
With gravel, fast amateurs can hang on to lead/chase groups without getting in the way of the contenders, and that’s part of the appeal.
Using Ironman for comparison again, there are plenty of pros who specialize in 70.3. I think Unbound 100, Belgian Wafer, and other half distance gravel races are only going to get more popular over time with more high-level participants.
How can I dislike this?
I’m in the “Sagan’s riding it not racing it” camp. Would be kind of cool for regular joes to get to ride with him some. I just don’t see him trying to shred the field (which he obviously could).
I’ll throw my prediction as 3rd or 4th group. He will ride hard enough to keep away from the risk of those riding over their skis as an earlier post mentioned, but not killing the pointy end.
did i see he got 14th?
Looks like Sagan was 52nd in the men’s field:
https://www.athlinks.com/event/174195/results/Event/1011764/Course/2222599/Bib/4196
ah. 13th pro. 53rd overall. good showing by the nonpros.