page_title: Peter Sagan
section_title: 2016
hierarchical_section_title: Peter Sagan / Professional career / 2016
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Paris-Roubaix 2016, à 8 km de l'arrivée&#160;: à droite, Peter Sagan, à gauche probablement Ramon Sinkeldam (à confirmer)
context_page_description: Peter Sagan is a Slovak professional road bicycle racer, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Bora–Hansgrohe. Sagan had a successful junior cyclo-cross and mountain bike racing career, winning the Junior Mountain Bike World Championship in 2008, before moving to road racing.
  Sagan is considered one of cycling's greatest talents, having earned many prestigious victories, including three consecutive World Championships, one European Championship, two Paris–Nice stages, seven Tirreno–Adriatico stages, one in the Tour de Romandie, three and the overall classification in the Tour de Pologne, a record seventeen stages and the overall in the Tour of California, and another fifteen in the Tour de Suisse. He has won a number of classics, including the Monument races Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders, three Gent–Wevelgem races and E3 Harelbeke, together with sixteen stages in Grand Tours: twelve at the Tour de France and four at the Vuelta a España. After having become the first rider to win the points classification of the Tour de France on his first five attempts, he went on to win it a record seven times, in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.
context_section_description: Sagan started his season at the Tour de San Luis, taking his first podium place of the year on Stage 2 by finishing second. In February, after a three-week training camp in Spain's Sierra Nevada, he competed in the opening races of the Belgian classics season, finishing second in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and seventh in Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne. He then came in fourth at the Strade Bianche, being part of the four-man decisive move, but getting dropped on the final climb to Siena. He took part in Tirreno–Adriatico, where he finished second in the overall classification, a single second behind Greg van Avermaet. This edition of the race was different in character from other recent editions since the only mountainous stage had been cancelled due to snow. Sagan also won the points classification. Sagan claimed his eighth second-place finish without a win since the World Championship at the Belgian road cycling classic E3 Harelbeke, before taking his first win as a world champion in Gent-Wevelgem, becoming the first reigning world champion to win the race since Rik Van Looy in 1962. Upon his win at Gent-Wevelgem Sagan became the World No.1 in the newly formed rankings.
  Sagan continued his successes by grabbing his first Monument victory at the Tour of Flanders, shedding his last opponent Sep Vanmarcke on the Paterberg and finishing the last 14 kilometers of the race solo, as the Cancellara-Vanmarcke duet had him in their sight but could not reach him. Sagan dedicated the win to two cyclists who died recently, Antoine Demoitié and Daan Myngheer. A week later, he took part in Paris-Roubaix, finishing eleventh after a split in the peloton occurred. He performed a stunt on a cobbled sector as Cancellara crashed directly before him by executing a bunny hop over the Swiss' bike and avoiding the crash, despite having only one foot clipped into his pedals at the time.
  In the Tour of California, Sagan won on stages one, which was a bunch sprint finish, and 4, where the finish was contested on the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. On stage 7, he was part of the breakaway, went solo from fifty kilometers to cover and was caught with 20 kilometers to go to the finish. He still managed a second place by a couple of inches over Alexander Kristoff. On stage 8 he took another 2nd place and clinched the points classification. On his next race, the Tour de Suisse, Sagan sprinted to victory on the hilly stage 1 around Baar. It was a record-breaking 12th victory for the Slovak on the Swiss race. The very next day he won another stage after joining the late breakaway after attacking the reduced peloton at the end of a climb, and outsprinted the pair.
  In the first stage of the Tour de France Sagan came in third. He then won the second stage, which featured a finish on a category 3 climb, to claim the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification for the first time in his career. He mentioned that he did not know he had won upon reaching the finish line, thinking more riders from the breakaway had crossed the line before him. Sagan was part of the breakaway on stage 10. He finished second to Michael Matthews and won the most combative award for his efforts. On the very next stage, Sagan broke away with yellow jersey wearer Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and his teammate Maciej Bodnar in the final kilometers. He outsprinted Froome to foil the sprinters' plans. After the stage, asked why he undertook such a daring move, he said: "We are artists". Sagan claimed his 3rd victory by winning stage 16 in Bern, beating Alexander Kristoff in a sprint by few centimetres. He finished second to Greipel on the last stage in the Champs Élysées, securing his green jersey. He also was elected "most combative" rider of the whole Tour.
  His next race was the Mountain Bike race at the Olympics. He suffered a puncture on the second lap while he was in third position on the trail, and did not score a significant result as a consequence. After abandoning the GP de Plouay – Bretagne due to a virus, he went on to win the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, finished second in the Grand 
caption: Sagan at the 2016 Paris-Roubaix
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