Peter Sagan tones down return to racing at Tour de Hongrie: "I have no expectations in terms of results"

Peter Sagan virtually retired from road cycling last season after a long and successful career. However, he made it an objective to race the Olympic Games Mountain Bike event and is using the Tour de Hongrie as a brief return to the road to get some rhythm.

“After the heart surgery, I had a month off, but I’ve been back on the bike for three weeks,” Sagan said in a press conference hosted by his team Pierre Baguette Cycling ahead of the Tour de Hongrie. "I'm going to go to the Tour of Hungary to accumulate racing kilometers, which, I hope, will help me progress. But I have no expectations in terms of results."

Hence, expectations will not be high ahead of the race. Sprinters like Mark Cavendish and Dylan Groenewegen certainly make it an interesting startlist and will lead to some exciting battles in the flat stages. Due to his extremely good positioning skills we can expect the Slovakian rider to be in contention for results, but it will be hard to imagine victories.

Over the winter and this season he has been competing in some minor MTB events but has not shown the desired results. Heart problems in March also forced him to take some time off the bike which was not beneficial to him, but his spot at the Olympics is still likely despite his shortcomings.