Santos Tour Down Under 2019: How cycling’s laid-back superstar Peter Sagan landed in Adelaide
Triple world champion Peter Sagan is one of cycling’s brightest stars, and he’s back for his fourth Tour Down Under. But the story of how the prodigious talent landed in South Australia didn’t begin in Adelaide — it was on the streets of Monte Carlo.
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Mike Turtur was sitting in a cafe in Monte Carlo waiting for Peter Sagan to walk in when the world champion arrived on a scooter.
How else would the sport’s biggest rock star get around the city’s cobbled streets on the French Riviera?
Sagan was midway through his 2016 season which was his first in the rainbow jersey and had agreed to meet Turtur for lunch.
The Santos Tour Down Under race director was on a mission to convince Sagan to open his 2017 season in Adelaide and, one hour and a handshake later, had done just that.
“He was unbelievably relaxed for a big rider and we told him that we had a good race for the start of the year, that he’d been before (as a first-year professional in 2010) and it was bigger now,” Turtur said.
“I said ‘You know the race and as a classics rider it would be a great start’.
“We had an agreement and when he signed with (new team) Bora it was with their knowledge that he had committed to racing in Adelaide.
“His manager, Giovanni Lombardi, was also there and when you do business with him, a handshake is as good as a signed contract.”
Sagan kept his word, came to Adelaide in January 2017 and didn’t win a stage but did the rainbow jersey justice.
“He was second and third, and he was there; he honoured the jersey by being in the mix,” Turtur said.
“I think he realised that year ‘Maybe I’ve got to do a little bit more to be a bit sharper’ and the next year he was’.”
Sagan returned in 2018, having won a third straight world championship, and this time won the opening night classic and the hilly stage to Uraidla.
“The stage I had picked for him was Stirling, and he was there but he went early,” Turtur said.
“Then up Norton Summit I thought he might lose contact near the top and it wouldn’t allow him to come back, but he was the one attacking up the big dippers.
“When I went to him after the finish, he had those big goggles on and said to me ‘You nearly killed me today’ because of the heat.”
This year will be Sagan’s third consecutive appearance at the Tour Down Under and fourth overall after he began his professional career in Adelaide nine years ago with Liquigas.
That year, Turtur had never heard of the Slovakian but was struck by his personality and toughness.
Sagan had crashed coming into the finish at Hahndorf on Stage 2 that was won by Andre Greipel and Turtur found him in the medical tent after the race.
“He was getting stitched up and had a pretty nasty gash on his leg and his arm where he copped a chain ring,” Turtur said.
“I said ‘Okay, Peter?’ and he grabbed me on the arm and said ‘I start tomorrow’.
He was most likely thinking as a new pro and not knowing the regulations that the organiser, through the race doctor, could say this guy can’t start the next day.
“So I said ‘No problem, your choice’ but I thought ‘Gee, this bloke has a bit of stick, and a couple of days later he was in the lead group going up Willunga. That’s always stuck in my mind.”
Sagan has become so much more than just a bike racer. He is an entertainer, fan favourite, media performer, sponsorship billboard and a race promoter’s dream.
“He’s worth his weight in gold in every aspect for the sport — promotion, personality, athletic performance, the look — you couldn’t ask for anything better,” Turtur said.
“He’s the type of athlete you’d die to have associated with your race.”
Happy new year everybody! See you at a race next year, starting at the @tourdownunder, where it will certainly be warmer than the snowed mountains... pic.twitter.com/TfuPWJbVhM
— Peter Sagan (@petosagan) December 30, 2018
Australian sports director Matt White has watched Sagan’s career closely and says his emergence was exactly what the sport needed when he burst on to the scene.
“He’s been a breath of fresh air,” White said.
“I wouldn’t know how seriously he takes himself but it (his persona) is a great marketing tool.
“He’s a unique individual, that’s for sure, and he’s a kid at heart.
“His skill set is incredible; he was junior mountain bike world champion which has enabled him to do some pretty special things on the bike, and you’ve seen the tricky and showy side of him as well.
“I mean, did you see the video he posted the other day bunny-hopping his bike up a set of stairs?”
White has in the past described Sagan as “the Eddy Merckx of our generation” and doesn’t shy away from his grand statement.
“You can’t compare eras but why I like the comparison is both of them could win on any terrain,” White said.
“The only thing Sagan won’t do is win a Grand Tour and Eddy obviously did, but maybe if Sagan rode in that era he could have won one as well.
“For a guy whose career is not finished … if it stopped today his achievements are outstanding.
“Three world championships in a row, I’ve lost count of how many green jerseys he’s won, and he’s won nearly all of the classics.
“Wherever he goes he wins.”
Although Sagan is the sport’s biggest star and at the top of his game, Turtur said he remains low maintenance and easy to deal with.
The only thing he asks of organisers is to provide him with access to a toilet before the start of every stage.
“Apart from that he has the same food, same rooms, no special treatment. He’s a laid-back guy and what you see is certainly what you get with Sagan,” Turtur said.
The 28-year-old is softly spoken with the media and in his post-race interviews but lets his bike do most of the talking.
“I don’t think he tolerates fools well, he’s straight down the line,” Turtur said.
“There’s no question he does his talking on the bike.
“To win three world championships and the green jersey six times in the Tour de France, and the way that he races, I often say he loses more races than he wins because of his aggression and laying it all on the line. He’s never conservative.
“That stage at Uraidla, he could have sat back hoping for a sprint but he said ‘No, get to the front and let them have it’.
“The spectators and fans of the sport will never die wondering with Sagan.”
Originally published as Santos Tour Down Under 2019: How cycling’s laid-back superstar Peter Sagan landed in Adelaide
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