Peter Sagan to miss the Tour of Flanders
The 2016 winner has decided to skip the race after struggling to find form at the start of the season.
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Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies) will not start the Tour of Flanders this weekend.
According to a report by French newspaper L’Équipe, he will skip the monument — which he won in 2016 — due to his struggles to find race-ready form.
Sagan is suffering from a “physical problem” the newspaper said and will undergo tests to understand the issue, which the team said was related to a “toxin from 200 kilometers.”
Instead of the Tour of Flanders, Sagan will race the four-day Circuit de la Sarthe, which begins on April 5.
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Sagan, who joined TotalEnergies over the winter, did not finish this weekend’s Gent-Wevelgem after he was pulled from the race ahead of the final climbing loop. Rather than the Slovak, it was his teammate Dries Van Gestel that was in the mix in the finale, taking third place from a four-man sprint.
He also struggled at Milan-San Remo — suffering an issue with his derailleur shortly before the Cipressa — and last Friday’s E3 Saxo Bank Classic, finishing 92nd and 68th respectively. His best result this season was fourth on the second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, though he abandoned the race ahead of the following stage after falling ill with a stomach bug.
Earlier this year, Sagan also contracted COVID-19 for the second time and he was forced to delay his season debut.
Geoffrey Soupe will replace Sagan in the TotalEnergies lineup at the Tour of Flanders this weekend, L’Équipe reported.