Tour 2015: Peter Sagan | Tinkoff-Saxo
FACT FILE
Country: Slovakia
Team: Tinkoff-Saxo
Age: 25
Height: 1.84m
Weight: 73kg
WorldTour ranking: 20
Wins in 2015: 6
Career wins: 71
Days racing in 2015: 43
Tour stage wins: 4
Km raced in 2015: 6,675
Form rating: +++
Some riders might be given a year’s grace when they move to a new team, but not triple maillot vert champion
Country: Slovakia
Team: Tinkoff-Saxo
Age: 25
Height: 1.84m
Weight: 73kg
WorldTour ranking: 20
Wins in 2015: 6
Career wins: 71
Days racing in 2015: 43
Tour stage wins: 4
Km raced in 2015: 6,675
Form rating: +++
Some riders might be given a year’s grace when they move to a new team, but not triple maillot vert champion
Peter Sagan. Sagan signed with Tinkoff-Saxo for a reported €4 million and with that came an expectation of results, firstly at the Spring Classics, where the Slovak prodigy was only there or thereabouts.
Outspoken team owner Oleg Tinkov wasn’t impressed, not seeming to take into consideration that riders can sometimes take a season to properly gel in a different squad.
Sagan apparently got the message in time for the Tour of California in May, which, following two stage victories, he won on a time bonus. The 25-year-old has been unbeatable in the green jersey competition at the Tour that he has won three times consecutively but cannot be described as a shoo-in this season.
Sagan can work on his own and may need to as part of a team determined to win the yellow jersey with Alberto Contador.
The reintroduction of time bonuses in the opening nine days (excluding time trial events), which are predominately flat, may also shake up the green jersey competition. Giant-Alpecin sports director Marc Reef has said his team won’t vie for it while Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb are on the same squad but there willì be perhaps more opposition for Sagan than in previous years.
Key Support
Sagan’s strength is his versatility and consistency; he may not win but he is guaranteed to be around the mark. Given that, there is little reason to suggest that he and Contador cannot coexist in the Tour squad and meet their respective goals. British sports director Sean Yates joined Tinkoff-Saxo this season and will, along with Steve de Jongh, help steer the team there. Yates has experience managing such lofty ambitions, which can only help. At his last Tour in 2012 the British mastermind guided Bradley Wiggins to victory while negotiating with runner-up Chris Froome and star sprinter Mark Cavendish, who was previously accustomed to a fully dedicated Tour squad.
Sagan can work on his own and may need to as part of a team determined to win the yellow jersey with Alberto Contador.
The reintroduction of time bonuses in the opening nine days (excluding time trial events), which are predominately flat, may also shake up the green jersey competition. Giant-Alpecin sports director Marc Reef has said his team won’t vie for it while Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb are on the same squad but there willì be perhaps more opposition for Sagan than in previous years.
Key Support
Sagan’s strength is his versatility and consistency; he may not win but he is guaranteed to be around the mark. Given that, there is little reason to suggest that he and Contador cannot coexist in the Tour squad and meet their respective goals. British sports director Sean Yates joined Tinkoff-Saxo this season and will, along with Steve de Jongh, help steer the team there. Yates has experience managing such lofty ambitions, which can only help. At his last Tour in 2012 the British mastermind guided Bradley Wiggins to victory while negotiating with runner-up Chris Froome and star sprinter Mark Cavendish, who was previously accustomed to a fully dedicated Tour squad.
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