Peter Sagan to return to racing at BinckBank Tour

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Following his expulsion from the Tour de France, Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) will make his return to racing action at the BinckBank Tour (formerly the Eneco Tour) next month. According to Velonews, Sagan will ride the Dutch-Belgian race before heading to Canada as he builds up towards the World Championships in September.

After winning stage 3 and putting himself into prime spot to take a record-equalling sixth green jersey, Sagan found himself consigned to an unexpected summer holiday. The UCI disqualified him from the Tour de France after he was deemed to have caused Mark Cavendish to crash during the sprint finish on stage 4. The team has since lost their main general classification rider Rafal Majka after the former Polish champion was among the many fallers during Sunday’s mountain stage.

Sagan rode the Eneco Tour for the first time last year, winning two stages, the points classification and finishing third overall. Team directeur sportif Patxi Vila played down any idea that Sagan would replace one Grand Tour with another by starting the Vuelta a Espana. Rather, it is likely that Sagan will take part in the GP’s Quebec and Montreal at the beginning of September.

Sagan’s major target is the World Championships in Bergen, Norway, where he looks to join Alfredo Binda, Rik Van Steenbergen, Eddy Merckx and Oscar Freire as a three-time winner. If he does win the rainbow jersey in Bergen, he will become the first man to win three consecutive road race titles – only Jeannie Longo has achieved it on the women’s side with her run of four titles between 1985 and 1989 [there was no women’s road race in 1988 - ed.]