"I had goosebumps": Peter Sagan returns to Milan to celebrate the Winter Olympics
CyclingMonday, 09 February 2026 at 02:00
Peter Sagan defined an era of cycling. With 121 career victories - including the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, a record seven Green Jerseys at the Tour de France, and an unprecedented three consecutive World Titles (2015-2017), amongst many others - he is royalty in the sport. However, his relationship with the Olympics as an athlete was complicated. He participated twice but never finished inside the top 10.
But now, retired and relaxed (he put an end to his career in June 2024, after riding half of the season for continental team Pierre Baguette Cycling), he is finally experiencing the side of the Games he missed as a competitor. Sagan went to Milano to experience the Winter Olympics, which are currently taking place in the Italian city.
"I had never been able to participate in the opening ceremony, because it was always on the eve or close to my races," Sagan explained from Milano in words collected by La Gazzetta dello Sport.
"This time I was at San Siro and I got emotional, I had goosebumps," he admitted. "In particular, when Andrea Bocelli sang. And also seeing Alberto Tomba light the cauldron..."
Sagan, Démare and Ballerini at the 2020 Giro d'Italia
Winter roots and no regrets
It is no secret that Sagan dabbled in winter sports as a child before fully committing to the bike, making his presence at the Winter Games feel natural. "The Games are the biggest party," he said. Looking at the prospects for his nation, his eyes are on the slopes. "For us in Slovakia, I hope that Petra Vlhová can compete in alpine skiing and do us honor, we'll see."
As for his own life after the peloton, Sagan insists he is at peace with his decision to hang up the wheels. "I have many commitments with sponsors now," he noted. "I ride my bike when I can and I have no regrets, I stopped cycling at the right time."
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- No doubt Lemond knows of which he speaks. I do believe though, and I feel modern science and sports science supports this, the years of covert "doping" were as harmful to the riders than beneficial, if not much more harmful. All of these riders were guinea pigs with all sorts of unknown medications, dosages, effects, if any, positive or negative. The "physicians " using these research drugs and off label medications were 100% experimenting on everyone and everything. They absolutely did not have any tried and true method to guarantee any result, let alone any safe and beneficial result. While there certainly was a lot of cheating, the effects of the cheating is nowhere near as simple as many of the athletes remember or imagine. There were a lot of placebo results, even if it didn't put you in a hospital. It's also a contributing factor to the current discussions around " you mean to claim a non doped rider today can go faster than a doped rider from 25 years ago?" when we never stop to think just how clapped those road side drugs practices were. There was so much experimenting with very questionable substances by people with very questionable credentials, they were as likely to kill someone as make them perform better. That didn't stop people like Armstrong and company from cheating, but it does explain some of his bafflement at how modern training, nutrition and equipment can erase his times. Poor old Lance was probably not getting the magic he was paying so much money for. He was a fool on multiple levels.Barry09-02-2026
- Still, it does seem that Tadej's injuries are always overstated. His knee swelling was just a minor injury, and can't be an excuse for getting dropped by Wout (who was still recovering from worse injuries in 2024). The same goes for his Luik-Bastonaken-Luik wrist injury. Maybe it's because he suffers so few
Rafionain-Glas09-02-2026 - His criticisms of the current crop of unhuman talent racing today is ridiculous of course, but let's pause and get real for a moment shall we?: 512 wins. My God, that speaks for itself, absolutely incredible. No rider in the past several decades can touch that, outside of Merckx himself obviously. But to be fair, MVDP and Tadej aren't done either, so time will tell. Regarding his CX comments, he is just attempting to defend his brother's honor, I get it. Seeing his record beaten in the absolute, most dominant fashion has to hurt, but that's normal. At the same time however, his criticisms of MVDP are pretty weak. Last time I checked he can absolutely sprint with the best of them. Furthermore, he has zero issues dropping everyone on the 22+% Koppenberg, nevermind soloing away from the pretenders to huge time gap victories in most of his races from Roubaix to every single CX race this year and more. It leaves little doubt that the man can certainly time trial when he needs to. It's arguably a better measure of his actual ability vs creative uses of drag cheating, wind tunnel friendly, new technologies we see utilized in formal TT niche settings. I would think this fact would appeal to Rog DVMK, given the comparitively limited availability of wind tunnel tech to riders of his era. His unapologetic, outspoken, fearless defiance of the popular fanboy narratives is born of the same mentality that made him such a fantastic racer in his time. Anything less would have seen him washed out with the rest of the "also rans". He is simply frustrated by the fact that MVDP is as good as he (a classics master) and his brother Eric (a CX master) combined!urbantoreador08-02-2026
- Jews in Jewllywood just wanna make money. How about the bio-film on Melania - the Lance film will crater similarly.bike-anarkist08-02-2026
- Unusually well co-ordinated result for Belgium.Mistermaumau08-02-2026
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- I guess by "clean" he means "only on amphetamine"?aphg108-02-2026
- Jeez, so many things to boycott these days.Mistermaumau08-02-2026
- Vlaeminck seems to know almost nothing about modern day cycling his comments about Pogi were laughable this is just more of the same.GeoffM08-02-2026
- That karma is a bitch ;)Pedalmasher08-02-2026
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