Petr Sagan is waiting for his ninth participation in the famous Paris-Roubaix monument. Sunday will be special for him, he will start the last races in the jersey of the Bora-Hansgrohe team, for which he rode for five years.
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Photo: TASR/AP, Michel Spingler
Peter Sagan celebrates the triumph at Paris – Roubaix 2018.
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The demanding one-off, which is characterized by 30 sections with large paving stones, so-called peacocks, has the 118th year ahead of it.
The weather forecast reports a high chance of rain, which could have a significant effect on the course of the race. The Slovak champion, who won the iconic event in 2018, agrees.
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“I have never ridden Roubaix in the rain. During the 2014 Tour de France stage, we completed several sections on the dice when it was raining, but that cannot be compared to the whole race.
I’m not afraid of wet and windy weather, but if it rains, it will make the track a special race, “said Sagan in an interview with the Belgian agency Belga.
Until the triumph in 2018, Sagan did not see a significant result on the iconic monument. In 2014, he was sixth, but for the next three years he ended up in the top ten each time.
He admitted that he has a relationship with racing, in which love and hate are mixed. He explained that luck was often not on his side.
“If you’re lucky, Roubaix is a great race. But if you don’t have it, it can be a very long and tiring track. Take a look at the list of winners, there are many of them and almost everyone is different. Either they won with luck or they had the best legs on day D, “Žilinčan continued.
He knows best that in Hell North, a cyclist can suffer from a number of problems that will affect the final result.
Read more Sagan missed the chance. Just because he wanted to win
“A thousand things can happen during a race. At the wrong moment you will get a defect, you will fall or you will be delayed because someone fell in front of you. Such a moment can easily affect the whole race for you.
You easily lose energy with them and then you have to catch up with your opponents. As a rule, you don’t have to be the best and you can win Roubaix.
Anyway, it’s a great race for the fans in front of the TV, I agree with that, “added Sagan, who is joining the French team TotalEnergies after the season.
Sunday’s race starts at 10.30, the finish at the Roubaix velodrome is expected at 17.15.
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