The Slovakian Olympic Committee has confirmed that Peter Sagan will swap selection for the Olympic road race for a place in the cross country mountain bike race in the hope of taking a medal.
The Tinkoff rider first revealed he was against riding the hilly road race after seeing the circuit in Rio in January. Sagan is a former Junior world mountain bike champion and added some mountain bike racing to his race programme this spring. After completing the Tour of California, Sagan recently spent time training at altitude in Park City, Utah, in the USA, mixing road work with regular rides on fat tyres.
Slovakia was hoping to secure a wild card place to the mountain bike race but qualified 15th in the final rankings, securing one place in the 50-rider field. The reallocation places were awarded to Guam, Hungary and Russia, forcing Slovakia to find an alternative way to have Sagan in the men’s cross country mountain bike race.
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Between his Tour of Flanders victory and heading stateside, Sagan chose to ride the Grazer Bike-Opening Stattegg in Austria on April 24 and the Czech Strabag MTB cup on April 30. He crashed and failed to finish his debut but rode to fourth place in the Czech Republic, securing enough ranking points to allow him to compete in Rio.
“This nomination came by mutual agreement of the Commissions of the relevant disciplines. Everyone thought that Peter Sagan, as world champion will start the road race. However Peter offered his place in the road event in exchange for place in the cross country mountain bike race,” Peter Privara, the president of the Slovak Cycling Association was quoted as saying in a statement from the Slovakia Olympic Committee.
“After finishing the Tour de France, Peter will do some a special training for four weeks. He will not go to Rio just to take part but to aim for a good position.”
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