"I reached the breaking point three years ago" - Honest Peter Sagan admits he's ready to leave road cycling

It comes as no surprise that Peter Sagan does not carry the same flame nowadays as he did throughout the 2010's, but in a brutally honest interview he admits that he's ready to turn the page on his cycling career and that he's at peace with it.

"I'm lucky I haven't crashed yet. But I've been better in the Tour before. I'll keep going, another week, and I'll see what I can still change here. The Tour is not over yet," Sagan told Het Laatste Nieuws. "If I didn't ride the Tour, I wouldn't be part of cycling right now. I'll stop when the time is right. At the moment I have to ride the Tour. That goes for all the other races I've already driven this year."

The former World Champion has been at the very top of the sport, a true rockstar, symbol of the Tour de France, three-time World champion and much more. Over the past few years with the emergence of a new generation and the natural progression fading, the Slovakian has found himself in a very different position. The 33-year old has a contract with TotalEnergies until 2024 but he has said that most likely next season he will only be preparing for the Mountain Bike Olympic Race.

“We are all different people, we race for different reasons. I am grateful for what I have achieved in my career. I feel that I have achieved incredible results, I have sacrificed a lot for this. Many people helped me with that. But to keep sacrificing myself year after year, I can't do that anymore," he states. "Because what will that change? It's time to turn the page."

Sagan has achieved almost everything he could as a rider of his type in pro cycling, regardless of how good form he found now, only a Tour de France victory or perhaps a Milano-Sanremo (which has eluded his palmarès) triumph could spark back his career. However that's unlikely to be the case, however Sagan admits that he is at peace with it, having continued in the peloton over the past few years as he feared having regrets if he retired too early.

“I reached the breaking point three years ago. But then I was too good to quit. Then I would have been sorry. Now I'm at peace with myself. When I was 18, I was glad I didn't have to go to school anymore. I didn't want to go back. Now I'm 33 and I don't want to return to cycling either. I enjoyed it, but it's enough," he concludes.