Few riders would want Peter Sagan for company in the finale of any major race, let alone the World Championships, but Michal Kwiatkowski is actively relishing a battle with the two-time champion in Norway next week.
That’s largely because it would mean the pure sprinters have been raced out of the equation, but also because if anyone knows how to beat the Slovakian, it’s him.
Greg Van Avermaet has started winning big races in the last couple of years, but Kwiatkowski has a notable string of successes in direct confrontation with Sagan, against whom he’s rubbed shoulders since the junior ranks. There was Strade Bianche in 2014, where he dropped him on the steep haul towards the Piazza del Campo, and E3 Harelbeke in 2016, where he got the early jump in a flat two-up sprint. Then at Milan-San Remo earlier this year he pipped him to the line by the narrowest margins in a three-up sprint on the Via Roma.
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“He beat me a couple more times, I would say, just times when I was not in the mix,” says Kwiatkowski magnanimously, speaking to Cyclingnews at the Tour of Britain, his final race before flying to Norway.
“Peter will be up there, for sure – defending the title is probably the biggest motivation of the year for him. I’ll be happy, actually, to be racing against him, because that’s going to prove that the race went hard, and the sprinters are not there. Let’s hope the scenario goes that way and that I’ll be able to race against Sagan, and not [Alexander] Kristoff, [John] Degenkolb – the fast guys.”
Not including Sagan – who has won seven bunch sprints at WorldTour level this year alone – as a ‘fast guy’ seems slightly bizarre, but perhaps it’s a sign that those duels have taken the edge off the fear Sagan inspires in most.
A long season
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