Peter Sagan's performances over the opening weekend of the Classics were a warning shot to those who thought they might be able to topple the World Champion off his perch this spring. Sagan was the only rider to feature in the race winning move at both Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.
Greg Van Avermaet got the better of him on Saturday in Ghent but Sagan had no equal in the group that he came to the line with Sunday in Kuurne. His rivals have all said over the weekend that he is the man to beat and what will worry them is that he believes that there is more to come as he builds up to the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in April.
"Improve my performance? I hope so," the Bora-Hansgrohe rider said with a wry smile in his post-race press conference. "We will see. It always depends not on the condition but on the results. If I feel better and I can win, then that is good. I hope with the next period of hard races that I can still improve. I hope I can grow my condition."
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The Sagan that turned up in the primary school that plays host to the Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne press room was a different character to the one that playfully lowered his seat in the Sporza studio and pointedly asked Sep Vanmarcke why he hadn't attacked Saturday. It certainly wasn't serious, it rarely is with Sagan, but he was much happier Sunday to give a run down on the race from his perspective.
He admitted that he had burned too many of his matches too early at Omloop, something that he says he also did at Kuurne last season. A year down the line, and with plenty more experience, Sagan had the confidence to play the game to his advantage. Knowing that he had the match of most of the riders in the front, he knew that it was about following the moves rather than making them.
"Yesterday I wasted a lot of energy to get into the front and to be second," he explained. "Today, I had experience from last year and last year I was attacking too early and then in the final the whole group came back. Last year, one guy won and then the group made the sprint and that's what I didn't want to do this year.
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