(08/01/2016 / Prensa / Press Tour de San Luis)· The current world champion wants to get a stage win in Latin America’s greatest cycling race after two second places: the first one behind Gavazzi in 2013, and the second one behind Modolo in 2014
· “I have very good memories of the race, it is a great way to get ready for the season,” says the Slovakian rider (Tinkoff)
· The Spring Classics, the Tour de France’s green jersey, the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and the Road World Championships in Qatar are some of his objectives in 2016
Four-time Tour de France’s green jersey winner, four-time stage winner at the ‘Grande Boucle’ and four-time stage winner at La Vuelta a España, among other many things, Peter Sagan returns to the Tour de San Luis after his participations in 2013 and 2014. He will not only be another of the great riders of the Argentinian competition, but the star attraction of the race. Indeed, he is the man who wears the rainbow jersey since the 27th of September, when he won the Road World Championships.
In spite of succeeding in all kind of races all over the world and starring in legendary duels together with riders such as Cancellara and Boonen in the biggest Spring Classics, the Slovakian rider for Tinkoff needed a victory in one of the cycling Monuments. True to his principles, he won in 2015 a thing more than a Monument: the Road World Championships in Richmond.
Peter did not only win the rainbow jersey, but also carried out an unforgettable exhibition with an outstanding attack with 2,5 km to go. Nobody could follow him. Sagan stormed to solo victory, in the way ‘Eddy Merckx’ used to do, and silenced the critics who said that he could not manage long and tough races.
Nobody should doubt a world-class rider who rose to fame as a professional by winning two stages at the 2010 Paris-Nice when he was 20. Before, he had won the junior mountain bike cross-country World Championships in 2008 and a silver medal in the junior cyclo-cross championships that same year. In addition to his outstanding skills on the bike and his brilliant victories, Sagan’s charisma and spontaneity propel him to stardom.
Sagan will ride the 2016 Tour de San Luis –the 10th edition of the Argentinian competition- in the world champion’s jersey. “I have very good memories of the race,” says the Slovakian. “I did not achieve a stage win, but I finished second twice,” he remembers. He finished behind Mattia Gavazzi in San Luis (it was the last stage of the 2013 Tour de San Luis) and took the second place behind Sacha Modolo the next year (in a stage which finished in Terrazas del Portezuelo). ”This race is a great way to get ready for the season,” he adds.
Together with Rafal Majka, the 25-year-old Slovakian rider will lead Tinkoff at the 2016 Tour de San Luis. Sagan does not believe in the curse of the rainbow jersey. “I always look for the highest performance and try to be the best,” he answers. “The training camp in the Canary Islands,” where Oleg Tinkov’s squad spent two weeks in December, “and the Tour de San Luis will allow me to be in good shape for the Spring Classics,” his first objective of the season.
Sagan wants to start the year on a good foot. He looks forward to claim his first Tour de San Luis stage win and, of course, obtain a victory in the rainbow jersey, something that former world champion Michal Kwiatkowski could not achieve in the Argentinian competition last year. He is not going to have time to rest this season. “I would like to shine in the Spring Classics, I have to defend my Tour de France’s green jersey, fight for the title at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro as well as the World Championships in Qatar,” he explains. In the middle of all these goals, there will be many small objectives, the ones which help a good rider to become a real champion.
