Pro road cyclist and past Junior XC World Champion Peter Sagan has revealed plans to participate in this year's eMTB World Championships at Les Gets.
First reported by
La Gazzetta Della Sport, an Italian sports publication, Peter Sagan revealed his plans for the World Champs later this month while also adding: "I won't be able to be competitive and I'm not going for that. For me it will be a party."
The Slovakian rider started his riding career both on and off-road with an early win at the Junior World Championships in 2008, the same year Josh Bryceland won the Junior DH and Nino Schurter the U23 XC race. In more recent years, Sagan has raced the XC at the 2016 Olympics and a few big gravel races.
Sagan will most likely be using his sponsor Specialized's eMTB and has the potential to match Tom Pidock's 2020 success when he won the Leogang World Champs on a Specialized S-Works Turbo Levo.
The 2016 Olympics definitely did not go as well as he had hoped, but Sagan is known for his technical prowess on the road so we look forward to seeing how he fares on his eMTB.
I'm pretty certain that this is the only MTB image PB have of Sagan (I was part of commissioning the images from Rio 2016) - so to use anything else would be complicated and expensive.
Also: whoosh
Looks like a blast to me!
I really hope they would put together a track that would really test ebike riders with an emphasis on technical skills since if you have strong fitness.. well you should race regular XCO..
I imagine really steep uphills where it's not about power but traction - something impossible on a regular bike - enduro/DH style downhill, lots of turns and awkward features ... let's add some huge jumps..
That would be a format I would enjoy.. If it's to see a slightly faster XC race, we are missing the point!
Maybe this will be the same thing? Good marketing for their Turbo Levo SL???