Peter Sagan: I missed my opportunity at World Championships

Peter Sagan after finishing fifth (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

Peter Sagan admitted he missed a golden opportunity to win a record-breaking fourth World Championships road race title in Yorkshire on Sunday, saying he chose not to follow what turned out to be the decisive attack containing eventual winner Mads Pedersen, despite feeling strong enough to have done so.

Sagan won Worlds three times in a row from 2015 to 2017, and victory in Yorkshire would have taken him past Eddy Merckx, Alfredo Binda, Rik Van Steenbergen and Oscar Freire as the all-time record holder. 

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Patrick Fletcher

Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.