Peter Sagan (Liquigas Doimo), the overall leader of the Tour de Romandie after stage 2.(Image credit: AFP Photo)
The final classification winners (-r): Thomas Rabou, Michael Rogers, Peter Sagan and Yaroslav Popovych.(Image credit: Jon Devich)
Peter Sagan (Liquigas - Doimo) is ecstatic about his stage win.(Image credit: AFP)
Liquigas rider Peter Sagan claims he has been a victim of Twitter identity theft and denied criticising the Italian team’s medical staff over his recent stomach problems.
The 20 year-old Slovakian rider was one of the revelations of the 2010 season, winning two stages at Paris-Nice and two stages at the Amgen Tour of California.
A two-part message on the ‘petersagannews’ Twitter feed published on Sunday said: “Sagan in dispute with Liqs doctors: "They think they have all the wisdom of the world. They try to change my eating habits by prescribing...” “..food my body responds not well to." Sagan is still on antibiotics recovering from stomach problems that plagued the second half of his season.
Another claimed Sagan would delay his start to the 2011 season: “Peter Sagan to skip Tour Down Under, his season will start in February.”
The tweets were picked up and published by some media without verifying the authenticity of the messages. However via a statement from the team, Sagan denied there was a problem with the team and insisted the ‘Petersagannews’ twitter feed was an impersonator. “I’ve been caught up in a case of identity theft. The ‘petersagannews’ profile does not belong to me and is not managed by anyone I trust,” Sagan said in the press release.
“I want to make it very clear that there is no problem between me and the medical staff of the team. I’ve got huge trust in Dr Roberto Corsetti, Dr Emilio Magni and Dr Antonio Angelucci. What was written on Twitter is totally false: I’ve never spoken about this and the words have been totally made up by somebody I don’t know.”
Sagan insisted he was healthy and is set to join his teammates in the Italian Dolomites for the first Liquigas-Cannondale get together that begins on Monday. “I feel good and I’ve recovered after a tough season. Now I ready to start all over again,” he said.
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Sagan said he has requested the Twitter account is closed as soon as possible.
Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
