Sagan to quit World Tour after this year, focus on MTB for Paris in 2024…
That’s pretty wild! I was just reading his interview in Rouleur’s “Mind Issue”. He mentioned he never really planned to be “in his 30s and racing bikes”. And he talked about the huge struggle to see his kid and train / race. But, he also said he had 3+ years left in him. I wonder what changed to suddenly or helped him accelerate that 3 year plan. Happy for him though.
He’ll be leaving it late for points…
I’ve been saying that he’s looked bored for years now. I was wondering why he didn’t go back to mountain bikes or gravel or something else sooner.
4 Likes
This could be great for MTB racing, assuming he is good enough to make an impact. Will be fun to watch.
I like it. Should be fun to watch.
I’d guess it’s probably because he likes making money and he needs to be in big road races in order to keep getting those sponsorship checks. I’m not sure if the big brands would want to write him checks to race less and race stuff with less eyes on it.
Wouldn’t most of just cash the checks for a few more years if we could?
I think there are other factors. He’s had a large entourage orbiting around him through his career - his brother, other riders, soigneurs, etc. If he had just quit, all these people also lose their jobs. And finally, he got divorced a few years ago, so yeah, I can imagine he needed a few more bucks in his account before retirement.
It sounds kind of like quitting your high paid job that was sucking your soul away for a passion project. Good for him!
3 Likes
GCN just posted this interview with some direct comment from him. Cool that he wants to go back to his childhood passion of MTB.
2 Likes
He could have gone to gravel and made a huge impact, but the never would have come close to sniffing the dollars he was making on the road. So he milked sponsors for a few more years with massive contracts (and quite honestly, produced very little).
I doubt he will be a factor in Paris for MTB as he’ll have the likes of Pidcock and (I believe) MVP to contend with.
He could still be a factor in gravel, but that window is closing rapidly. Riders are taking it SO much more seriously now than even 2-3 years ago…it is a whole different level now and will only continue to go up.
Sagan’s moving aside to make way for Alaphilippe to join Total Energies after Lefevere does a Bennett on Ala 
3 Likes
The most amazing statistic about Sagan — and there are MANY — is that in addition to his 129 professional wins(!!!), he has finished in 2nd place 111 times.
Absolutely incredible.
3 Likes