KantoBoy

Anybody wanna put in their .02 on how his year's gonna go next year?

I wish him all the luck but I think he's gonna have a tough time since he'll be marked more than ever. I do hope he won't have a 2013 Gilbert type of World Champ season. Phil looked like he had a jar of honey that year and the bees just chased him wherever he went.

But I do think this kid has a good attitude on his approach on competition - he never gives up. I personally thought he did the right thing earlier where he just took it by himself rather than play the watching game with Matthews, Uran and Co. He gets caught up too much in these situations and this is where everybody marks him. He attacked at the right time and knew nobody descends like a MFer like him.

I hope he works on his tactics and Tinkoff gets more guys (Pozatto and Blythe is on-board, not sure how much space they got but a lot of their riders are leaving).

Another bridesmaid year for GVA him and Sagan are my 1A and 1B. I also thought Delgenkob will have Sagan's wheel until the end but he was obviously caught off guard.

So what do you think?

PS
whoever caught that helmet earlier is one lucky MOFO sitting on a pot of gold.
PPS
Sinyard is probably having a party at the moment. Imagine the marking push in '16

diphthong

congrats to sagan. super-consistent rider nearly always in the mix when
he should be and occasionally when he shouldn't be. hell of a bouquet he
caught. i think he'll fare better than many of the world champs as of late
at avoiding the rainbow jersey jinx (since he's always a marked man anyway)
as long as he doesn't break anything, contract mono, run into any more
motor bikes/cars or test positive/non-negative. tinkoff will probably be his
biggest obstacle next year as this year.

Andy Somnifac 

Someone probably died in the ensuing scrum.

A junior on my team got the last bottle he dropped before Governors Street.

dstrong 

I thought Sagan played it perfectly. No real team to support him, he just did what he always does and went freelance. He crushed that final cobbled climb and then managed to hang on. I could have sworn his legs seized up at one point within the final k but Paul said something about "finding his gears" so that may explain the hesitation I saw. He was in total agony those last few 100m but it all paid off for him. His girlfriend seemed pretty happy for him too!

Dan333SP

He actually pulled out of his right pedal while out of the saddle and then had to clip back in. Someone posted a slow motion video of it on Instagram. He still had a few seconds in hand but that would have been a nasty way to lose a thrilling race if he'd been unable to get the cleat back in the pedal and lost momentum.

https://instagram.com/p/8JV****RSF/

GuitarBob

Talk about capturing the perfect moment on video, wow. Thanks for posting that.

When he looked down, I worried (for him) that he had a mechanical.

dcsix

Sagan is certainly marked, but there seems to be such an influx of young-and not so young-newly recognized talent, and with Sagan being such an intuitive, creative rider, I think he'll be fine. It's not like he wasn't marked yesterday, and look what happened-he played it perfectly. It would of course, be nice if Tinkhoff would shut his !@#$%^&*?? pie hole, but he's probably too busy congratulating himself to consider such nuance as that. Peter Sagan will get another contract one day for an owner who supports him instead of mocking him out publicly, and his world will be completed. Great racing!

sprince

Sagan has been marked yesterday and for years before that, he couldn't get any more marked if he had flashing led lights on his jersey. Tinkoff may be a little over the top with the comments, but the fact is that Sagan is at Tinkov-Saxo because no one else could afford to pay him more. Aside from the public antics, it's probably a good fit for him. Sagan tried to get a contract at Quick Step early on but was rejected. I bet Lefévère kicks himself every race day over that decision.

diphthong

i certainly hope so.

redcon1

Yep, thanks for posting.
I was just uphill of the green canopy on the right of the course. I saw him look down and thought a mechanical also.

mprelaw

Oleg is the George Steinbrenner of cycling. A loudmouthed blowhard with tons of money who thinks he knows the sport better than his DS.

fietsbob

Next Year his Team Jersey will have that Rainbow Stripe on it somewhere.

Rich Gibson 

Normally they're white with the three stripes across the chest; wanna bet Tinkoff tries to put a big Tinkoff label on that jersey? Hopefully UCI will keep him in line. He certainly doesn't deserve it for all the poor mouthing he did about Peter.

What struck me the most was Sagan's uninhibited joy after winning and how so many of the world's best acknowledged his accomplishment with smiles, high fives and congratulatory pats on the back. What a thrill to watch.

Rich

Andy Somnifac 

Of course there will be a Tinkoff label on it. He is on the team after all, and Tinkoff is paying his salary.

Rich Gibson 

Thanks for the clarification. I got part of it right...partial credit. Did Tinkoff pay his way to Richmond; or Slovakia?

Rich

Leinster

Tinkoff provide the bike he (and his teammate brother) won the race on, if that means anything.

Andy Somnifac 

And he WILL be paying him when he races in the rainbow jersey.

WCroadie

It doesn't matter who paid his way to Richmond, every WC jersey has the trade team logo on it, he races for Tinkoff all year long not Slovakia. However, I wish he would leave Tinkoff, Oleg is such a giant d'bag.

fietsbob

team sponsor may want that space in exchange fot their money, so stripes may Be Smaller

redcon1

I think the UCI Stripes are mandated in the placement/color/sizing by an imposed European DIN standard, for both the yearly jersey as well as the striping for past winners, so no variance. I cannot find the reference, however.

Dan333SP

https://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/R...NG_English.pdf

There are extremely detailed guidelines for exactly how the jersey is to be integrated with trade team and sponsors, beginning on pg. 49. Not a lot of wiggle room for Tinkoff to play around there.

redcon1

Thanks Dan, I knew I had seen a source document before.

WCroadie

Prelim design isn't so bad Peter Sagan's World Champion's jersey design revealed | Cyclingnews.com

Leinster

UCI Rules.

EventServices

I'll watch that part of the video again and again this winter. That was magical. When you compare it to other sports and other winners...

In the post-race press conference, he acknowledged his teammates who stayed very close to him at all times because the team car was far back in an extended race caravan. It would have taken minutes for him to get assistance from the car. So while his team didn't work to chase down the breakaways or counter attack, they played an important role in keeping him in position.
To that end, I had conversations with UCI people this week about the awarding of Gold Medals (at Worlds and Olympics) to the entire team. They all seem to agree, but the Olympics people don't. How do we explain to common folk that it's a team sport if we award individual medals?