Fresh from his second victory at Gent-Wevelgem, world champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) returns to Belgium this weekend billed as perhaps the top favourite for Tour of Flanders victory, alongside three-time winner Fabian Cancellara.
“The Tour of Flanders is extremely important. It’s one of the three races that I would like to put on my palmarès, like Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix,” Sagan said in an interview with Het Nieuwsblad, published on Friday.“I'm already six years trying to win this mega prize, but it’s not easy.”
Sagan’s 2011 debut apart, he has lined out at the start in Bruges each year burdened by considerable expectation. After a promising 5th in 2012, Sagan was the last man to resist Cancellara the following year, before finally yielding on the Paterberg.
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At that point, a Ronde victory seemed an inevitability, but nothing is ever straightforward in Belgium in April. An off-colour Sagan could only manage 14th in 2014, while last year, he was unable to match Alexander Kristoff, and then faded suddenly in the finishing straight to hand third place to Greg Van Avermaet.
Sagan’s victory at the Richmond World Championships last September seemed to rebut the notion that the additional distance of the Monument Classics had been his undoing over the years, though doubts persist over his decision-making in the finale of the biggest races.
A rapid sprinter, an increasingly powerful rouleur and blessed with the ability to accelerate on punchy climbs, Sagan has arguably the most varied armoury of any Ronde contender, but the surfeit of choice brings its own problems.
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