Another race and another disappointment for Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) in 2015, however, at Paris-Roubaix it was his equipment that let him down and not his legs. While Greg Van Avermaet and Yves Lampaert were up the road, Sagan was in the main group of contenders with five kilometres to go when a broken shifter forced him to change his bike. His frustration was evident when he threw his bike, bidons and all, onto a grassy bank. The bike change was quick but it was too late for the Slovakian to cover the next wave of attacks and he was left fighting for the minor positions.
"Today I was missing the luck," he told Cyclingnews with a wry smile after a quick chat with his father, who had been waiting with all the fans outside the bus. "I am disappointed because I was on the front and then in the last 10 kilometres I had a problem with the shifting with the bike and then I had to change the bike, and everybody was gone in the breakaway."
Sagan finished the day in the second main group, 31 seconds down on race winner John Degenkolb, with a number of solo finishers splitting them from the leaders. As others in the group jostled to get something of a result out of the day, Sagan stayed at the back and rolled across the line in 23rd place, left empty by his chase back onto the group. He was reluctant to say what he may have done without the mechanical issue, but he knew that it had robbed him of an opportunity to turn his season around.
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"I can’t say because the race could have got away so I don’t know but for sure I was on the front, and I was stopped from fighting for the victory because of a problem with the bike," he said. "Then after the last four kilometres I was pulling to get back into the Wiggins group and then I didn’t have any more legs."
Sagan has had a disappointing classics period by his own standards. His two fourth places at Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders were by far his best performances but they were matched by some poor results in the intervening races.
"For sure everybody was expecting more but this is the sport and racing, and what can you do?" Sagan shrugged. "Every race is different and one time it is good and one time it is not, that is it."
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