Peter Sagan is the new men’s world road race champion, the first Slovakian to win the UCI World Championships to add to his four Tour de France
ADVERTISEMENTPeter Sagan is the new men’s world road race champion, the first Slovakian to win the UCI World Championships to add to his four Tour de France points classification titles.
The 25-year-old was way down in the pack when he surged out in front and immediately created a gap with 3km to go on the final climb up the cobbles in Richmond, Virginia.
Long-tipped to be cycling’s next big thing, over most of the punishing 261.4 kilometre course he looked like an also-ran, but no-one could live with his powerful finish.
“I saw also a lot of comments on, yeah, like the people I’m not good for the long race and this but yeah, now I have this jersey and I hold it for all next year,” said the clearly overjoyed victor.
Despite throwing his bike away after crossing the line Sagan might well be hanging on to his lucky machine for a while yet. It is almost certainly destined in the future for pride of place in a Slovakian sporting museum.