Teams & Riders Peter Sagan discussion thread.

[Jacques de Molay]

Re: Re:

Haven't watched it either.

So how did you form an opinion about it.

Just reeks of: 'look at me! you haven't watched me for a couple of months, look at me! Look at me!'

To me, I see a guy who is insanely talented, loves to ride his bike, animates races, does his best to win many races, wins some races, is respected by his peers, and yet still doesn't take himself too seriously.

This isn't Cipollini-style self-promotion. Sagan is a man more confident in himself than a Cav or Cippo. He doesn't need the unnecessary bravado. He's comfortable putting himself in a situation (in this case, the Grease video) where he can appear both foolish and carefree. This also isn't Chris Froome appearing in a ridiculous sumo outfit. Sagan still maintains his own brand of cool and style even in the midst of parody.

Someone like Cippo made a fool of himself unintentionally. He thought he was being bold and brash with some of his outlandish outfits, but really he was humiliating himself. Sagan, in this video, makes no attempt at taking himself seriously. That's the difference. Most pro athletes could stand to learn a thing or two from Peter Sagan.

And before anyone jumps on my "bravado" comment. Yes Sagan has it. Tons of it. Like when he crossed the line after winning the World Championships. That's where it belongs. Swearing at reporters or mouthing off to your competitors is how some others channel their insecurities. Sagan, however, makes his loudest statements while riding his bike.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

Haven't watched it either.

So how did you form an opinion about it.

Just reeks of: 'look at me! you haven't watched me for a couple of months, look at me! Look at me!'

To me, I see a guy who is insanely talented, loves to ride his bike, animates races, does his best to win many races, wins some races, is respected by his peers, and yet still doesn't take himself too seriously.

This isn't Cipollini-style self-promotion. Sagan is a man more confident in himself than a Cav or Cippo. He doesn't need the unnecessary bravado. He's comfortable putting himself in a situation (in this case, the Grease video) where he can appear both foolish and carefree. This also isn't Chris Froome appearing in a ridiculous sumo outfit. Sagan still maintains his own brand of cool and style even in the midst of parody.

Someone like Cippo made a fool of himself unintentionally. He thought he was being bold and brash with some of his outlandish outfits, but really he was humiliating himself. Sagan, in this video, makes no attempt at taking himself seriously. That's the difference. Most pro athletes could stand to learn a thing or two from Peter Sagan.

I'm sure I have a good enough idea about what this video is about without watching it, via actually watching the original film and comments from many on Twitter.

No question the guy is supremely talented, I'm not questioning that.

Im sure those that love Sagan then love this video, but I don't like him and it just screams egomaniac. You've kind of admitted as much by saying he is comfortable making himself look cool and carefree, just feeds the big 'look at me' ego even more. Yes a few pros could learn a few things from Sagan, as long as they don't start pinching podium girls rear-ends though!

 

[Jancouver]

Re: Re:

Hey LS, whether you like it or not, Sagan is the best thing that happened to cycling in recent years. You may dislike him all you want, but it is clear that his on-bike and off-bike presence is very refreshing and he is drawing more fans and more sponsors to the sport.

Unlike most of the peloton, he is not boring to watch​ nor a one-trick pony (Purito etc). If the peloton was full of Sagan like riders, it would be so much fun. On the other hand, can you imagine peloton full no-personality guys like Froome? I would go shoot myself.

I specifically stated he wasn't boring, and I have repeatedly stated that the way he rides on the bike is nothing to do with why I dislike him. The entire point of that post was to try to be diplomatic about the fact that successful people with strong personalities always divide the audience, so not to be surprised that he's not universally liked.

But of course, you're not interested in any kind of shade of grey to the otherwise jet black stance, because to you, any stance other than "this guy is awesome" is an affront, which you seem to think is a more objective stance than mine (spoiler: we're both massively biased). As evidenced when you've repeatedly reduced all dislike for Sagan as being solely due to the buttpinching incident because it's easier to dismiss that way, when many people despised him long before that, and when you claimed that I never give any reasons for any dislike, at which several people who actually like Sagan stepped in to correct you, and when you claimed that because I don't like Sagan I no longer have anything to contribute to any discussion of male professional cycling (see, just like you, I can cherrypick somebody's posts to see what I want in them. We're not that dissimilar after all!).

We can go back and forth all day long on this topic

Sure, he started very young and there were some immature acts on his side but only a complete stubbornness can prevent someone from seeing the on/off bike qualities of this guy.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Re:

Hey LS, whether you like it or not, Sagan is the best thing that happened to cycling in recent years. You may dislike him all you want, but it is clear that his on-bike and off-bike presence is very refreshing and he is drawing more fans and more sponsors to the sport.

Unlike most of the peloton, he is not boring to watch​ nor a one-trick pony (Purito etc). If the peloton was full of Sagan like riders, it would be so much fun. On the other hand, can you imagine peloton full no-personality guys like Froome? I would go shoot myself.

At least in the Netherlands and Belgium, where I'm familiar with the media a bit, Sagan really doesn't get as much attention as your post seems to suggest. I mean, he's a pretty prominent sprinter and classics rider, but he doesn't get any more attention or appreciation than any rider with similar results would get. People here don't really care about his tomfoolery that much......

(Also, Purito, though his racing style might be boring, is actually quite funny. He actually has personality and a good personality too. He just doesn't speak English.)

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Again, though, when have I ever criticized his on-bike actions in the same way? I have always maintained that I have no problem with the way Peter Sagan races, other than that it's Peter Sagan the person who is doing it. He's not a Petter Northug, an unlikable racer and an utterly unlikable human being on top of that.

Off-bike, of course he's marketable. There are a lot of douchebags in the world, and due to how numerable they are, they're a valuable market sector to advertisers. If he weren't such a great talent as a bike rider, he'd be running out of MTV reality shows to appear on before his fifteen minutes of fame ran out; those shows are often filled with the most vapid, unlikable tools this side of the Entourage movie, but those shows always draw a good audience.

 

[Jancouver]

Re: Re:

Hey LS, whether you like it or not, Sagan is the best thing that happened to cycling in recent years. You may dislike him all you want, but it is clear that his on-bike and off-bike presence is very refreshing and he is drawing more fans and more sponsors to the sport.

Unlike most of the peloton, he is not boring to watch nor a one-trick pony (Purito etc). If the peloton was full of Sagan like riders, it would be so much fun. On the other hand, can you imagine peloton full no-personality guys like Froome? I would go shoot myself.

At least in the Netherlands and Belgium, where I'm familiar with the media a bit, Sagan really doesn't get as much attention as your post seems to suggest. I mean, he's a pretty prominent sprinter and classics rider, but he doesn't get any more attention or appreciation than any rider with similar results would get. People here don't really care about his tomfoolery that much......

(Also, Purito, though his racing style might be boring, is actually quite funny. He actually has personality and a good personality too. He just doesn't speak English.)

Purito is funny? Who knew. I just checked YouTube and there are about 20K videos related to his name. Not much considering he has been racing since 2000. As much as I looked, I couldn't find anything funny or entertaining.

On the other hand, Sagan has 10x more videos over his short career and many of those are worth of watching.

Please show me at least one video that is somewhat entertaining and comparable with something​ like this by Purito https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM9Eh2uQ7Ek

 

[hrotha]

Purito is witty. He's funny, but he doesn't do physical comedy, slapstick or stunts that can be put on YouTube. Hence why you mostly need to speak Spanish to appreciate it.

 

[Jancouver]

Re:

Purito is witty. He's funny, but he doesn't do physical comedy, slapstick or stunts that can be put on YouTube. Hence why you mostly need to speak Spanish to appreciate it.

Perhaps if you live in Spain because I just dont see any kind of publicity involving Purito anywhere else.

BTW what is funny about Purito if no "physical comedy, slapstick or stunts that can be put on YouTube" ?

 

[hrotha]

Erm, the things he says, for example?

As for the lack of publicity, well, that's hardly an excuse in this day and age: nothing easier than actively seeking it out yourself on social media. If you can't because you don't speak Spanish, fair enough, but don't insist that there's no way he could be considered funny by those who do know about his humour.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Re: Re:

Purito is funny? Who knew. I just checked YouTube and there are about 20K videos related to his name. Not much considering he has been racing since 2000. As much as I looked, I couldn't find anything funny or entertaining.

On the other hand, Sagan has 10x more videos over his short career and many of those are worth of watching.

Please show me at least one video that is somewhat entertaining and comparable with something​ like this by Purito https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM9Eh2uQ7Ek

Because being popular on youtube equals being funny.......

If you learn Spanish and read an interview or some tweets or whatever, you'll find out that Purito comes across as a nice person, who cracks plenty of jokes and doesn't take himself too seriously. So, what hrotha said basically.

 

[Jancouver]

Re: Re:

Purito is funny? Who knew. I just checked YouTube and there are about 20K videos related to his name. Not much considering he has been racing since 2000. As much as I looked, I couldn't find anything funny or entertaining.

On the other hand, Sagan has 10x more videos over his short career and many of those are worth of watching.

Please show me at least one video that is somewhat entertaining and comparable with something like this by Purito https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM9Eh2uQ7Ek

Because being popular on youtube equals being funny.......

If you learn Spanish and read an interview or some tweets or whatever, you'll find out that Purito comes across as a nice person, who cracks plenty of jokes and doesn't take himself too seriously. So, what hrotha said basically.

Usually, people put stuff on YouTube because it should​ be worth of watching.

Same as being a nice person does not equal being funny or entertaining. Plenty of nice guys that are completely boring and not funny by any mean.

Can you provide some links to funny interviews that I can read? While my Spanish is not perfect, having a huge Hispanic community around does provide enough exposure to pick up the basics.

Anyway, back to Sagan. Comparing Sagan and Purito entertaining levels is like comparing David Copperfield with a small town street magician that nobody ever heard of.

 

[classicomano]

To be honest I find Jurgen van den Broeck to be much funnier than Peter Sagan. But I can appreciate Sagan's efforts.

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

Purito is funny? Who knew. I just checked YouTube and there are about 20K videos related to his name. Not much considering he has been racing since 2000. As much as I looked, I couldn't find anything funny or entertaining.

On the other hand, Sagan has 10x more videos over his short career and many of those are worth of watching.

Please show me at least one video that is somewhat entertaining and comparable with something like this by Purito https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM9Eh2uQ7Ek

Because being popular on youtube equals being funny.......

If you learn Spanish and read an interview or some tweets or whatever, you'll find out that Purito comes across as a nice person, who cracks plenty of jokes and doesn't take himself too seriously. So, what hrotha said basically.

Usually, people put stuff on YouTube because it should​ be worth of watching.

Same as being a nice person does not equal being funny or entertaining. Plenty of nice guys that are completely boring and not funny by any mean.

Can you provide some links to funny interviews that I can read? While my Spanish is not perfect, having a huge Hispanic community around does provide enough exposure to pick up the basics.

Anyway, back to Sagan. Comparing Sagan and Purito entertaining levels is like comparing David Copperfield with a small town street magician that nobody ever heard of.

I imagine Copperfield is Purito, and Sagan the magician? I agree with hrotha, Purito is a more witty, almost satirical like comedy which is based on things he says, not things he does.

Sagan is more of a Jackass comedian (I mean the film(s)). Ofc this is a hyperbole, but I assume you know what I mean. Sagan is more of a 'lad', if you can put it that way.

 

[Flamin]

Until recently, I have always been an enormous fan of Sagan. Now I have gotten pretty indifferent to him. In his younger years I loved him because he was entertaining and different than others. He didn't care about his image, he was just a young kid with the world at his feet, having fun. Yes, he made mistakes like the butt pinching and other inappropiate things like how he celebrated his first Tour stage win, but who hasn't at that age? That was 100% Peter Sagan and because of that, someone I, and many others, could identify myself with. No politically correct ***, no media team behind him etc. etc.

Unfortunately he's no longer that guy. The ridiculous fake speech after the Worlds, now this video... The guy is now a superstar, who is managed by tons of people that are trying to make him as marketable as they can. RIP Sagan 2010-2014. It was a great pleasure witnessing you.

 

[jsem94]

Re:

Again, though, when have I ever criticized his on-bike actions in the same way? I have always maintained that I have no problem with the way Peter Sagan races, other than that it's Peter Sagan the person who is doing it. He's not a Petter Northug, an unlikable racer and an utterly unlikable human being on top of that.

Off-bike, of course he's marketable. There are a lot of douchebags in the world, and due to how numerable they are, they're a valuable market sector to advertisers. If he weren't such a great talent as a bike rider, he'd be running out of MTV reality shows to appear on before his fifteen minutes of fame ran out; those shows are often filled with the most vapid, unlikable tools this side of the Entourage movie, but those shows always draw a good audience.

Northug may be an unlikable racer, but he does it because it wins him races.

But yeah, his behavior outside of the ski tracks is not something to be applauded.

 

[May0maniac]

Purito really has a great sense of humor, Sagan is more like a Class Clown, I really like Peter as a rider but sometimes he tries a little bit too hard to be funny.
Nobody deserves to be compared to Northug, someone would have to race like a Gerro/Levi hybrid, act like Cipo and race for Team Sky.

 

[Carols]

Re:

Purito really has a great sense of humor, Sagan is more like a Class Clown, I really like Peter as a racer but sometimes he tries a little bit too hard to be funny.

The bolded. He is a joke IMO. Should just ride his bike!

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re:

Purito really has a great sense of humor, Sagan is more like a Class Clown, I really like Peter as a racer but sometimes he tries a little bit too hard to be funny.
Nobody deserves to be compared to Northug, someone would have to race like a Gerro/Levi hybrid, act like Cipo and race for Team Sky.

This I agree with.

Anyway, all the haters can be content, that he probably won't have time fooling around too much anymore, when the new season kicks in.

 

[Keram]

Re:

Unfortunately he's no longer that guy. The ridiculous fake speech after the Worlds, now this video... The guy is now a superstar, who is managed by tons of people that are trying to make him as marketable as they can. RIP Sagan 2010-2014. It was a great pleasure witnessing you.

What you said makes sense. I think it is not from his head. But it is really great marketing. That video was posted two days ago and hits 645k views. At the end of the video is link to products of company where his wife is one of a partners with her dad. Peter is blessing for his wife´s business They would never have such great promotion without him. I am worried that she will be pushing him to similar activities even more in the future.

 

[Jacques de Molay]

Re: Re:

At the end of the video is link to products of company where his wife is one of a partners with her dad.

It's not only at the end, the very title of the video itself is GREASE SUNROOT. I've no idea as to just how this promotes the company, but they're being as obvious as they can about the connection.

I'm looking forward to the next installment, when they mimic a scene from Pulp Fiction.

The ridiculous fake speech after the Worlds...

Do you mean the one in English, a language that Sagan only has a cursory grasp of? What was fake about it?

 

[Jacques de Molay]

Now that I think about it, the ULTIMATE response to Sagan's Grease video would be if Travolta made of video of himself reenacting Sagan's victory strut in Richmond. Bike toss, helmet toss, glove toss, the works.

 

[BalearicBeats]

Re:

To be honest I find Jurgen van den Broeck to be much funnier than Peter Sagan. But I can appreciate Sagan's efforts.

You liked him getting angry at Sarkozy, didn't you?

For people who speak Dutch, Van den Broeck really is funny, but it's not because he wants to be funny

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

At the end of the video is link to products of company where his wife is one of a partners with her dad.

It's not only at the end, the very title of the video itself is GREASE SUNROOT. I've no idea as to just how this promotes the company, but they're being as obvious as they can about the connection.

I'm looking forward to the next installment, when they mimic a scene from Pulp Fiction.

The ridiculous fake speech after the Worlds...

Do you mean the one in English, a language that Sagan only has a cursory grasp of? What was fake about it?

Van Avermaet said he thought Sagan was told to do so. And the fact that he says that in public makes me think he's not the only one in the peloton who feels that way.

 

[BalearicBeats]

Re: Re:

At the end of the video is link to products of company where his wife is one of a partners with her dad.

It's not only at the end, the very title of the video itself is GREASE SUNROOT. I've no idea as to just how this promotes the company, but they're being as obvious as they can about the connection.

I'm looking forward to the next installment, when they mimic a scene from Pulp Fiction.

The ridiculous fake speech after the Worlds...

Do you mean the one in English, a language that Sagan only has a cursory grasp of? What was fake about it?

Van Avermaet said he thought Sagan was told to do so. And the fact that he says that in public makes me think he's not the only one in the peloton who feels that way.

I also felt that way at first, but in the end he was talking about something completely different than everyone was expecting so it might not be true. Sometimes it seems to me that cycling media are amazed that cyclists think about anything outside of races, e.g. on Sporza they always call Nick Nuyens a genius because he has acquired the easiest possible university Masters degree in Belgium.

 

[KGB]

Re: Re:

At the end of the video is link to products of company where his wife is one of a partners with her dad.

It's not only at the end, the very title of the video itself is GREASE SUNROOT. I've no idea as to just how this promotes the company, but they're being as obvious as they can about the connection.

I'm looking forward to the next installment, when they mimic a scene from Pulp Fiction.

The ridiculous fake speech after the Worlds...

Do you mean the one in English, a language that Sagan only has a cursory grasp of? What was fake about it?

Van Avermaet said he thought Sagan was told to do so. And the fact that he says that in public makes me think he's not the only one in the peloton who feels that way.

Of course someone told him''Peter say this and that''.Sagan is just too simple say that kind of things.Real Sagan was racing and celebrating.Another things are just PR and of course his wife working very hard on it together with his manager.Well first money and then bike.First bike and then maybe money was for Sagan before when he jump to pro.That's why he is so good with bike and obviously he loves fun(specially his teammate Kolar could talk about it))).