![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sagan-by-Bob-Cullinan-shtstk-1200x754.jpg\")
Peter Sagan after winning his third world road race title in Bergen, Norway, in 2017 but has now bemoaned how the \u201cfeeling\u201d of pro racing has changed (Photo: Bob Cullinan)<\/p>\nPeter Sagan after winning his third world road race title in Bergen, Norway, in 2017 but has now bemoaned how the \u201cfeeling\u201d of pro racing has changed (Photo: Bob Cullinan)<\/p>\n
Peter Sagan, one of the most exciting pro riders of the modern era, has bemoaned recent developments in pro cycling, saying the outcomes of major races were often decided with two hours to go. He believed this had changed the sport.<\/p>\n
The three-time world champion, who won the points jersey at the Tour de France seven times, said while everything from nutrition to a rider\u2019s weight and their training was carefully controled during his career, that was further accelerating.<\/p>\n
In recent years, Tadej Poga\u010dar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) has romped through the one-day races and stage races from the start of the season to the end. He not only wins races very frequently but has killed off the opposition quite regularly via attacks with 60-80km remaining.<\/p>\n
Though his racing style, and the sheer depth of his physical capabilities, are incredibly impressive, the frequency of his wins, and the size of the winning margins, have been described as predictable and repititious by some fans of the sport.<\/p>\n
And though Sagan did not single out Poga\u010dar for special criticism, when he was interviewed by Spanish newspaper Marca in Abu Dhabi, where he was promoting MyWhoosh, it was quite clear who he was talking about.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying it\u2019s boring, but\u2026 it\u2019s true that sometimes, two hours before the finish, you already know who\u2019s going to win. That changes the feeling a bit. In general, yes: everything is much more controlled. But even when I was racing, it was controlled too: controls, weight, nutrition, everything. <\/p>\n
\u201cScience has certainly taken another leap forward, though. I wouldn\u2019t say (racing is) boring, but\u2026 it\u2019s true that sometimes, two hours before the finish, you already know who is going to win. That changes the feeling a bit. Overall, yes: everything is much more controlled,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a different kind of racing, that\u2019s for sure. And it\u2019s at a very high level. Together, they put on a great show for the fans,\u201d he added of Poga\u010dar, Jonas Vingegaard and Mathieu van der Poel, though he named much older races when asked who he most enjoyed competing against.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Greg) Van Avermaet, (Tom) Boonen, (Fabian) Cancellara, (Mark) Cavendish\u2026 and (Marcel) Kittel. I never beat Kittel in a straight sprint: when we were battling for the win, he always came in first. I\u2019d finish eighth or ninth\u2026 but I never beat him in a head-to-head battle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now working for training platform MyWhoosh as an ambassador, Sagan said though eracing did not have the same history as road races, he still believed it had a future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s different for the public, sure, but we\u2019re already seeing specialists all over the world who dedicate themselves solely to this. They train on virtual platforms and master this terrain,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t compare it to road cycling: it will never be like the Tour de France, it doesn\u2019t have all that history behind it. But as a new discipline, it\u2019s growing rapidly and already has a large audience. Is it a show? It depends on each person\u2019s character, as always.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peter Sagan after winning his third world road race title in Bergen, Norway, in 2017 but has now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-292652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}