“Somebody is going to beat it, that's life”: Peter Sagan insists his historic record of seven Tour de France green jerseys is destined to be broken

Peter Sagan believes it is only a matter of time before someone surpasses his record of seven Tour de France points classifications, insisting that every record in cycling is eventually broken. The Slovak, who dominated the green jersey competition throughout the 2010s, also reflected on the challenges behind his success, the Tour's new points system and the heart condition that briefly overshadowed the end of his career.

Sagan won a record seven green jerseys between 2012 and 2019, eclipsing Erik Zabel's previous mark of six. Although no rider has managed to defend the points classification since then, the 36-year-old is convinced his achievement will not stand forever.

"I had my records: seven green jerseys and three World Championships in a row, but I won't have them forever," Sagan told Cycling Weekly.

He pointed to Mark Cavendish's record-breaking 35th Tour stage victory as another example of cycling's constantly evolving history. "Even Mark Cavendish won't have his record. He was fighting a lot to win 35 stages of the Tour de France and he beat Eddy Merckx's record, but in the future somebody is going to beat it. That's life."

"Every green jersey was different. Some of them I won very easily because the stages were good for me and I took a lot of points with second and third places, as well as in the intermediate sprints."

After winning three stages and the green jersey on his Tour debut in 2012, he admitted he expected similar success every July. "In my first Tour I won three stages and the green jersey and I expected that from myself every year afterwards, but it was hard to win because every Tour was difficult."

This year's Tour has increased the reward for winning flat sprint stages from 50 to 70 points, a change designed to favour pure sprinters over riders such as Pogacar. And Sagan believes the organisers have made the right decision.

"They've done well because it means a pure sprinter can win it, but it's going to be harder for riders like me and Michael Matthews."

Asked about this year's Tour, Sagan naturally named Pogacar as the favourite but warned that nothing is guaranteed over three weeks. "If somebody asks me now who will win the Tour de France this year, I say Pogacar, but who knows how the first 10 days will go. Who knows if he'll have bad luck or get sick. Three weeks is a long time and every Tour is different."

Sagan officially retired in 2024, but shortly afterwards he faced a frightening health issue when he developed a cardiac arrhythmia. "It was OK because I was not dying but it was scary what was happening."

The condition proved difficult to diagnose, but, fortunately, surgery resolved the problem. "Even the doctors couldn't see anything when I was doing efforts. It was only after they put a controller under my skin when I continued to ride my mountain bike could they see that I had this arrhythmia. After they found it, performed a procedure, and everything was good. It disappeared."

Now enjoying retirement, Sagan has no desire to return to professional cycling in a management role, at least for the time being. "I don't see myself as a sports director or manager. For now I don't want to do this."