Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) may be the only rider in the peloton who could have pulled off his feat Saturday at the Tour of California, where he jumped into a breakaway group on a notoriously difficult Santa Rosa stage, escaped that group for a long solo flyer, and then salvaged his day with second place in the bunch sprint after getting caught with about 25km to go.
"It was hard day," the relaxed and jovial world champion said in the post-stage press conference, summoning a bit of uncharacteristic understatement.
"From the start, six or seven riders went away," he continued. "We had in the breakaway Michael Gogl. One team, Rally, they wanted to catch the breakaway and they started to pull. They got very close to the breakaway and then they attacked, and I also attacked with them. Then there were 10 or 12 guys in the break."
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Sagan's decision to go in a breakaway seemed odd on a day that looked like it could favour him with a reduced-bunch sprint. He could have sat in the group and waited for everything to come back together near the finish, saving his energy for the final bunch kick. But the unpredictable Slovakian said he favoured his chances out front.
"It's very difficult to ride in the group, because if I am in the group nobody pulls and they let the breakaway go," he said. "And if I am in the breakaway everyone is pulling to catch me. It's not my decision what they can do. I'm doing what I want and what I am told."
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