Peter Sagan is returning as a road cyclist. The world champion of 2015, 2016, and 2017 will start next week in the Tour of Hungary, which begins on May 8.
The news was announced by his team, Pierre Baguette Cycling, where Sagan’s brother Juraj is the sporting director.
At the end of last year, Sagan announced his retirement from road cycling because he wanted to compete as a mountain biker at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris.
Heart surgeries
Heart problems disrupted Sagan’s mountain biking ambitions. Earlier this year, he underwent two surgeries after an abnormally high heart rate was detected. The surgeries were successful, and the cyclist expressed a desire to “ride again within a few days.”
The now 34-year-old Sagan still has a slim chance of making it to the Olympics as a mountain biker. However, his country, Slovakia, does not receive automatic entries for the mountain biking event, so Sagan must hope for a Universality Place, a sort of wildcard.
Such a special entry can be assigned by an Olympic committee to an athlete from a smaller country to make the competition more ‘diverse.’ Whether Slovakia and Sagan qualify for this is unclear.
Sagan is known as one of the most eccentric cyclists in recent years. He often captured the spotlight with his humorous remarks and antics on the bike, as well as his sporting achievements.
For instance, no cyclist has won the green jersey in the Tour de France as often as he has, which is awarded to the rider who collects the most sprint points. Sagan has won it seven times.
He also won a total of twelve stages in the Tour and claimed victories in monuments such as Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders.
