After winning two stages plus the overall classification at the recent Tour of Poland, Peter Sagan is now ready to tackle his first Grand Tour. The Liquigas-Cannondale youngster will get that phase of his career underway tomorrow when he competes in the team time trial, and he’s eager to see how it goes.
“This is a completely new experience for me so I’m curious to see how I’ll perform over three weeks,” said the Slovakian. “Even though they’ve been demanding I’ve only ever competed in short stage races until now and this will be totally different.”
Although Sagan is only 21 years of age, he’s already got a list of results that are the envy of many older riders. During his two professional seasons he’s taken stage wins in Paris-Nice, the Tour de Suisse, the Tour of California, the Giro di Sardegna, the Tour de Romandie and Poland, plus the overall title in Poland and Sardegna. He’s also taken the points jerseys in each of those races, bar Romandie.
He’s aware that performing in a Grand Tour is a tougher ask and knows what he must do between tomorrow and the end of the race.
“I need to keep my form consistent throughout the race without too many dips in performance if I want to get to Madrid,” he said. “The parcours features a series of really tough stages so it’ll be hard but exciting as well. I love challenges and this one is definitely a major challenge. Finishing a Grand Tour is a fundamental step for a rider: it helps to shape you and increase your level of endurance. I’m ready and determined to achieve my goal.”
The team will also include Vincenzo Nibali, who won the race last year. The other riders will seek to boost his GC chances and will work to help him in that regard, but Sagan will also have a degree of personal freedom.
“Everything has worked out well so far and I’ve managed to compete at the highest levels thanks to good training and preparation. I’d love to win a stage, that’s obvious, but I don’t want to build up too many expectations or put pressure on myself. I’ve tried to keep a cool head when racing since I’ve turned pro, and I always focus on learning something new: and that’s what I’ll do at the Vuelta too.
“I know there’s a massive amount of fierce competition but I don’t want to think about it. I just want to race and give it 100%: up to now I think that’s worked alright.”
Sagan will be fast in the bunch sprints, but with riders like Mark Cavendish (HTC Highroad) there, he knows that he may have to wait for more selective stages to land that victory he seeks. Fortunately he’s a solid climber, as evidenced by his overall win in Poland, and will have a clear advantage over the pure sprinters on the lumpier stages. When the terrain is tough enough to shed or even weaken those riders, he should come to the fore.
The goal is to pick up a victory for himself, but also for his team-mates; he said that they have been a strong support for him in his career thus far, and he sees it as a chance to give something back. “I feel like everyone really trusts me and my teammates have supported me brilliantly in every race to date,” he explained. “I hope to score a win to repay them for all their work and I’ll certainly be providing support whenever it’s needed to help our captain Nibali seal the overall victory.”
As things stand, Sagan is seen as one of the most exciting young riders in the sport. The world of cycling will have a clearer picture of his potential for future years when the race hits Madrid on September 11th.