Peter Sagan: Tour contender?

[sacker]

Maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit, but I reckon Peter Sagan could be a tour and grand tour contender. Thoughts? Anyone agree?

I'm watching stage 6 and he is a f*cking freight train. Attacks with Nibali and Rodriguez up the final climb and looks comfortable as anything.

 

[Parrulo]

hills =/= mountains

also his time trial is very average so imo is impossible

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit, but I reckon Peter Sagan could be a tour and grand tour contender. Thoughts? Anyone agree?

I'm watching stage 6 and he is a f*cking freight train. Attacks with Nibali and Rodriguez up the final climb and looks comfortable as anything.

no


......

 

[Ferminal]

It's easier for a non-climber to go up a wall than 20km @ 7%...

Not say he can never be a GT contender as I believe it could be possible, but why change the type of rider he is?

 

[cineteq]

Maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit, but I reckon Peter Sagan could be a tour and grand tour contender. Thoughts? Anyone agree?

I'm watching stage 6 and he is a f*cking freight train. Attacks with Nibali and Rodriguez up the final climb and looks comfortable as anything.

Yes he can - but only of he joins Sky.

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

Why would he waste his talent on GT's?

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

we must also not forget that he sucks in timetrialing as well, of course he can work on it, but it's something best to be worked on early and sagan has stated multiple times he has no interest in that

 

[kanari]

Why would he focus on GT's when he could be the best classics rider ever to have lived...

 

[maltiv]

He sucks in long mountains and sucks in long time trials.

Perfect combination for a TDF contender

...but he can certainly win every classic out there, even F-W and Lombardia.

 

[Red Rick]

Not as long as the Tour includes climbs longer than 3km and tt's longer than 10km and does not include boni's

Or not as long as Sagan doens't join Sky

 

[El Pistolero]

Sagan is good in everything except the things that make you good in Grand Tours(GC wise):

- recovery
- time trials(no prologues)
- climbing

Roelandts and Hushovd were in the top ten today.

 

[virandociclista]

waste of bits

 

[RHRH19861986]

The thing is, in cycling nowadays, if you can win some type of races almost 100% (like it´s with Sagan in Flanders, San Remo, Amstel, Gent-Wevelgem, stages of stage races), you´ll try to win as much as possible, and feel you don´t have the time to discover what´s possible beyond.

Sagan has the advantage that time is on his age.

He did Roubaix once, DNF, and never tried again. But GC wise, or even GCs in GTs, stages like the one to Grindelwald in TdS 2011, which he won, are very encouraging.

Hope he doesn´t go Cancellaras way: Cancellara announced to focus in the nearer future also on races like Liege and Lombardia and spoke about even winning the Tour, but the only things he still cares about (and IMHO ever will care about) are Flanders, Roubaix and the Tour prologue plus wearing yellow for a few days afterwards.

 

[El Pistolero]

The thing is, in cycling nowadays, if you can win some type of races almost 100% (like it´s with Sagan in Flanders, San Remo, Amstel, Gent-Wevelgem, stages of stage races), you´ll try to win as much as possible, and feel you don´t have the time to discover what´s possible beyond.

Sagan has the advantage that time is on his age.

He did Roubaix once, DNF, and never tried again. But GC wise, or even GCs in GTs, stages like the one to Grindelwald in TdS 2011, which he won, are very encouraging.

Hope he doesn´t go Cancellaras way: Cancellara announced to focus in the nearer future also on races like Liege and Lombardia and spoke about even winning the Tour, but the only things he still cares about (and IMHO ever will care about) are Flanders, Roubaix and the Tour prologue plus wearing yellow for a few days afterwards.

Even Boonen talked about winning Liège lol. Although back in 2005 that didn't sound as absurd as it may now.

 

[King Boonen]

Even Boonen talked about winning Liège lol. Although back in 2005 that didn't sound as absurd as it may now.

Probably high.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Why would he focus on GT's when he could be the best classics rider ever to have lived...

That's some big words for a rider who hasn't won a classic in his whole career so far.

 

[iZnoGouD]

He can climb because he has huge anaerobic capacity, probably more than anyone else in the peloton, that's what makes him so good in these types of races
He doesnt have the engine for long steady efforts like Cancellara

 

[gruppeto993]

Hope he doesn´t go Cancellaras way: Cancellara announced to focus in the nearer future also on races like Liege and Lombardia and spoke about even winning the Tour, but the only things he still cares about (and IMHO ever will care about) are Flanders, Roubaix and the Tour prologue plus wearing
yellow for a few days afterwards.[/QUOTE]

Its a huge risk to lose so much weight and start training at altitude on long mountains only to manage a top 10 in a gt. Its not worth it and I don't think sagan should do it. Gilbert too once said this, and he said that he wouldn't become a gt rider only to manage a top 5. He said that if he was to start losing weight and training on the mountains he would only do it if he is confident he can win against the likes of GT contenders like contador, evans, wiggins etc.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Sagan is good in everything except the things that make you good in Grand Tours(GC wise):

- recovery
- time trials(no prologues)
- climbing

Roelandts and Hushovd were in the top ten today.

LOL there, sagans recovery is great

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Even Boonen talked about winning Liège lol. Although back in 2005 that didn't sound as absurd as it may now.

yes it did, maybe not to you and your fellow countrymen, but the rest of the world with braincells laughed, boonen in his young years can not be compared to sagan in any possible way, despite how much you want that to be

 

[El Pistolero]

LOL there, sagans recovery is great

He was totally spent after the Tour de France last year.

 

[TheEnoculator]

Sagan has been compared to Sean Kelly, a sprinter who's also a very good climber. But nowadays, the peleton is more segregated. You have the pure climber, the pure time trialist, etc. So it's hard for a "Kelly-reincarnate" to win a Tour these days.

In the near future, I can see him winning the MSR and Flanders. In the intermediate future maybe the Amstel Gold Race, and possibly one of the week-long races that don't have major climbs further into the future. But the Tour? Never.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

He was totally spent after the Tour de France last year.

how do you know?

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Sagan has been compared to Sean Kelly, a sprinter who's also a very good climber. But nowadays, the peleton is more segregated. You have the pure climber, the pure time trialist, etc. So it's hard for a "Kelly-reincarnate" to win a Tour these days

So no, I don't think he'll ever be a tour contender. In the near future, I can see him winning the MSR and Flanders. In the intermediate future maybe the Amstel Gold Race, and possibly one of the week-long races further into the future. But the Tour? Never.

if sagan was a rider in the 80s though, he would be kelly like, true that.

 

[El Pistolero]

how do you know?

For starters, he didn't win a single race anymore after the Tour. Even lost a race like Veenendaal-Veenendaal.