Cycling Profile: Peter Sagan
Peter Sagan was born on January 26, 1990 at Zilina, in Czechoslovakia. He is a Slovak professional road bicycle racer. He was successful in junior mountain racing and in 2008 he took first Junior World Championship.
Sagan started his career at the age of nine and joined a small local club, Cyklisticky spolok Zilina. He rode both mountain bikes race and road race with his unconventional style. He won his first professional victory in 2008 Junior World championship in
Vale di Sole. He grabbed second place in Cyclocross Junior World Championships in Treviso as well as Junior Paris-Roubaix in 2008 season.
In the season of 2009, Peter grabbed first place in GP Kooperativa. He continues his effort and took second and fifth stage and also grabbed overall seventh place in Dookola. He secured points standing and title of best young rider in Dookola Mazowsza.
Peter joined the Quick Step team for road testing but the contract did not materialise. Due to this, he was so frustrated and decided to quit the road cycling career but his family convinced him to give it a try to join the Liquigas-Doimo. Liquigas team
presented him a two year agreement (2010-11) and also gives him choice to ride mountain bikes for Cannondale team.
The Liquigas team manager and doctors were surprised after his best results and said we never seen cyclists 19-year-old so physically strong and skilled. Sagan showed a tremendous performance in the mountain bikes racing so his team-mates call him Terminator.
In the season of 2010, Liquigas team selected Sagan for Pro Tour road race in January. In the second stage of the race Sagan faced a crash but he never losses effort and kept riding with 17 stitches. In Willunga, in the last climb of stage Sagan joined attack
with the three cyclists Cadel Evans, Luis Leon Sanchez and Alejandro Valverde. All of them working well together in the next 20 kilometres but Sanchez won the stage.
During 2010 Paris-Nice road race Sagan grabbed his first and second Pro Tour stages. After his team-mate Maciej Bodnar broke his collarbone then Sagan joined the team. In Paris Nice race, Sagan won the final climb of the third stage beat the two cyclists
Roche and Rodriguez.
Due to this stage win, Sagan also took a lead Points standing and secured green jersey. After two days, Sagan launched a solo attack and won the fifth stage. Finally, he grabbed overall 17th place in Paris-Nice, with 3 minutes and 20 seconds down
to stage winner Alberto Contador.
In 2010 Tour of California, Sagan won the fifth and sixth stage and also took a lead in Points standing and due to his great performance he also took a title of Best young riders. After taking a break he returned to good form and managed to gain a high placing
in European race and secured second place in Grand prix cyclist de Montreal.
Sagan continues a 2011 season with the same team, now renamed Liquigas-Cannondale team. He showed a good effort and in Giro di Sardenga and grabbed first, third and fourth stage and also took overall lead after beating Jose Serpa by 3 seconds.
During the Tour of California, he won fifth stage to win the overall points standing. In June he took a part in Tour of Suisse and won the third and eighth stage and also led in overall points standing. He also won the National road race championship and
fourth and fifth stage of Tour of Pologne.
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