"Violence against women is wrong", Peter Sagan states as teammate Alexandre Geniez appeals to sentence

TotalEnergies are currently in the headlines for very negative reasons as Alexandre Geniez has recently been sentences for violence against his ex-partner. Although briefly, Peter Sagan has been asked about this ongoing topic within his team and has stated his opinion.

“I don’t know anything about this case and so you did the right thing by speaking to Jean-Rene about it. My personal opinion is pretty obvious but pretty clear: Violence against women is wrong,” Sagan said in a pre-race conference at Tirreno Adriatico. This comes after teammate Alexandre Geniez was handed a four-month suspended prison sentence, however because he has appealed, he has not been convicted. Team manager Jean-René Bernadeau has told Cyclingnews earlier this week that "the law prevents us from doing anything more," as calls for his suspension from the team came from all sides of the cycling world.

At the press conference, Sagan also talked about his current form and goals for the upcoming weeks: “I got COVID-19 for the second time in January. This week I had a little bit of flu. It's already passing and I just hope to be better during Tirreno-Adriatico. I can’t really set myself any goals, I’ve just got to see how the racing goes day after day. It all depends on my form.”

He shrugged off his poor form until now though. With both Tour de Flandres, Paris-Roubaix aswell as dozens of other high-level wins across the spring calendar over the year, he feels little to no pressure for having lacked the best legs so far, claiming “the real season starts now, via Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice."

“Then it’s Milan-San Remo and the next Classics in Belgium. They’re big goals for all the riders who do the Classics and so they’re goals for me too. There’s little else to say. I just have to keep on racing, keep on suffering and hope my form comes good as quickly as possible," he concluded.

He has gotten over the course of his career seven wins at Tirreno-Adriatico. Whilst it is unlikely that he'll get an eighth this week, he's looking to build-up on his form as a priority, but will nevertheless have three stages that should end in a sprint where he'll be able to test his legs.