World Champion Peter Sagan showed over the past week that he’s in good form ahead of the forthcoming classics including Milan-San Remo this Saturday, as he took two stage wins and the maglia rossa at Tirreno-Adriatico.
With Sagan’s challenge for the maglia rossa all but complete, having supplemented his points with a second place on Monday’s stage, yesterday’s 10-kilometre time-trial was supposed to be an uneventful stage for the Slovakian, with the aim of just getting through the day.
However, just a few minutes into his ride, the BORA – hansgrohe rider had to make a sharp detour from the course as a dog and its walker crossed in front of him. It was testament to Sagan’s amazing bike handling skills that he was able to make his way onto the pavement to avoid a crash. Coming in 72nd position with a time of 12:37, the red points jersey was confirmed as his.
“I was lucky there wasn’t an incident with the lady who crossed the road with her dog – it was funny really,” said Sagan after the stage. “I didn’t brake because I was in my time trial position. I saw her really late, so the only way to avoid her was to go off road. Today I was relaxed – it was a rest day for me and I just wanted to get to the finish safe. I’m happy nothing happened and I’m looking forward to Saturday now.”
Team Coach, Patxi Vila, was happy with performances on the day and the race as a whole. “Maciej Bodnar took fifth at the Tirreno – Adriatico ITT in 2015 and 2016, so his sixth today puts him in the same place, more or less. However, he is still suffering from his injuries from stage 3. I think we can be happy with his performance. He was close to target and if he hadn’t crashed, I feel he could have done better.
“Overall it was a good top ten result for him and with the time trials of the season in mind, I consider we’re on track. In regard to Rafał Majka, we tested a new position and new materials today and the result was quite satisfactory. We can be quite happy with this final stage of Tirreno – Adriatico. Overall, our objective in the race was to try to win the two stages which Peter won.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t have the best Rafał on the Terminillo, so our GC hopes were gone. Still, he did a great job to help Peter win his second stage, so I think he’s in good form for the Volta a Catalunya. Finally, I think Peter is fine for the Classics, so we can be happy with the performance of the team.”
