Peter Sagan's name was added to the growing list of all-stars who will head to Argentina for the Vuelta a San Juan. Organisers of the UCI ProSeries race confirmed Sunday that TotalEnergies would join Ineos Grenadiers in the lineup, and the three-time world champion would make his 2023 season debut at the eight-day stage race.
The Vuelta a San Juan, which was sidelined the last two years due to the COVID-19 coronavirus, returns to the international calendar January 22-29, 2023.
"I am already preparing for a nice 2023 season that will start in a place where I feel at home, in one of my favorite races, the Vuelta a San Juan," Sagan said in Spanish on his Instagram feed.
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Ineos headliners Egan Bernal and Filippo Ganna are expected to start their seasons in South America, where Ganna placed second overall in 2019 as part of the Italian national team.
Peter Sagan raced the 2020 and 2019 editions of the Vuelta a San Juan and stacked up three podiums among his 10 top 10s. The Slovak national road champion has competed three other times at Tour de San Luis, and is still looking for an evasive stage win in Argentina.
Sagan had a disappointing start to the start of his TotalEnergies campaign, having moved from Bora-Hansgrohe in the winter. He had second and third bouts with COVID-19 this past season, the last time in the final days of the Tour de Suisse leading up to the Tour de France. He completed the 21-day Grand Tour for TotalEnergies, but was not in the thick of the sprints. Sagan was only able to contribute one road victory, at the Tour de Suisse, across 48 days of racing in the new kit.
Representing Slovakia, he won his national road title and finished seventh at the Worlds road race in Australia. Always an adventure seeker for anything on two wheels, Sagan also competed at e-MTB Worlds and Gravel World Championships, finishing top 20 in both.
Now 32, Sagan has a contract with TotalEnergies through 2023.
"It hasn't been my best season for sure, but it's not been my worst and I'm not sure if I need to 'save' it. That's not the way I look at my seasons or my career," Sagan told Cyclingnews earlier this fall as he heads into his 13th pro season.
