WHAT WE'VE LEARNED THIS MONTH

NOBODY WILL WORK WITH PETER SAGAN

Here’s what happens when you work with Peter Sagan: he beats you. So when the Slovak bemoaned the lack of collaboration in the chasing group of favourites behind Niki Terpstra and Mads Pedersen on the run-in to the finish of the Tour of Flanders, it’s fair to say that the gesticulation aimed at his rivals was less a real expectation than they’d put their shoulders to the wheel than an expression of frustration that he’d been put in a box. The world champion is one of the best riders in the world. However, he’s well into his peak years and a few lone voices are starting to point out that while he’s won a lot of races, his monument tally has only just inched up to two. The three rainbow and five green jerseys mean that he’ll go down as one of the greats of the sport, and he surprised a lot of people by winning Roubaix. But there’ll always be a ‘but’. His issue is his sprint. As he showed at Gent-Wevelgem, it’s lethal. This explains the reluctance of riders to work with him, though the composition of the group in Flanders also contributed to the lack of co-operation – they were, after all, dragging the dead weight of two more Quick-Step riders around with them, defending Terpstra. But it’s within Sagan’s abilities to do something about it. His Flanders win and first Worlds win were taken with breathtaking solo attacks. We’re seeing a little fewer of these with mid-era Sagan, which is fine – he’ll still win plenty of sprints. But as we learned at Paris-Roubaix, when he takes the race by the scruff of its neck, he is at his best.