Peter Sagan draws professional career to a close at Slovak MTB Championships

Peter Sagan is drawing his professional racing career to a close on Sunday with one final outing at the Slovakian Mountain Bike Championships.

The former three-time road world champion has been winding down his career for a season-and-a-half, having raced his final WorldTour race and World Championships last year with TotalEnergies.

This season he dropped down to Continental level with Slovak team Pierre Baguette, attempting to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games as well as racing his final road races.

Pierre Baguette announced on Sunday that he'd be in action for the last time at the cross-country race at his National Mountain Bike Championships.

"After the health problems that Peter Sagan had this year, he decided to end his professional career also in mountain biking today at the Slovak National MTB Championships in Košice," the team announced.

"Today's XCO at 16:00 will be his last-ever professional UCI race in any discipline."

Sagan underwent two rounds of heart surgery in February and March this year following an abnormal tachycardic episode at a mountain bike race in Spain.

He returned to racing, taking on the Tour de Hongrie and several further mountain bike races, though in May he learned that his nation had missed out on qualifying any riders to the Paris Olympics mountain bike events.

His final flourish on the road came at his home stage race, the Tour of Slovakia in June.

"I still remember my first stage at the Tour Down Under on January 19th, 2010," said Sagan in an Instagram post after the race.

"I was just a young kid, not even 20 yet, and I would never have imagined back then that I would have such a long and fruitful career in this sport.

"It's been a long road, with its ups and downs, and ending my road racing career in the Tour of Slovakia, surrounded by the support and love of my fellow Slovaks, is a memory I will cherish forever."