Giro d'Italia 2020 - Peter Sagan the saviour steps in to save the race in its time of need
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Updated 14/10/2020 at 10:31 GMT
As rain poured down on the Giro d'Italia and the Covid-19 storm clouds gathered, Peter Sagan rediscovered his long-lost mojo to give cycling fans a timely reminder of his class in a sodden Stage 10 on Tuesday.
Peter Sagan - Giro d'Italia 2020, stage 10 - Getty Images
Image credit: Getty Images
Four-hundred-and-sixty-one days, and many second places, since his last win – and then Peter Sagan went and did that.
If any stage of the Giro d'Italia needed something special, this was it. With both Mitchelton-Scott and Jumbo-Visma withdrawing from the race following a slew of positive Covid-19 tests taken on Monday's rest day, morale was rock-bottom ahead of Stage 10.
As a careworn peloton of 145 riders rolled out of Lanciano ahead of what promised to be an intriguing stage through Abruzzo, there were genuine fears that the latest day of the 103rd edition of La Corsa Rosa could well be its last.
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Highlights: Sagan solos to Stage 10 glory after ride for the ages
Race director Mauro Vegni put on a brave/delusional (delete as appropriate) face claiming that the Giro organisers RSC were on top of Covid, that the cases which struck down Steven Kruijswijk, Michael Matthews, and staff members from Mitchelton-Scott, Ag2R-La Mondiale and Ineos Grenadiers, were not a sign that the virus could spiral out of control, that everyone else was fit and healthy and raring to go...
"The target is to reach Milan," Vegni said, echoes of the Black Knight of Monty Python's The Holy Grail insistence that, "It's just a flesh wound".
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Giro race director: 'The goal remains to arrive in Milan'
But the show went on, and it was Sagan, the consummate showman, who ensured it was a true spectacle.
Stretching his legs early on with Thomas De Gendt, Sagan tried his luck again an hour into proceedings by joining forces with a man whose own debut Giro d'Italia had got off to a slightly better start.
Alongside Filippo Ganna – the Italian powerhouse from Ineos Grenadiers who won the opening time trial and the pink jersey with his first 15 minutes of Giro action, going on to add a second win three days later – Sagan only went and averaged 440 watts for 20 minutes in his breakaway-forming attack on the climb to Chieti.
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Peter Sagan of Slovakia and Team Bora - Hansgrohe / Breakaway / Rain / during the 103rd Giro d'Italia 2020, Stage 10 a 177km stage from Lanciano to Tortoreto
Image credit: Getty Images
When 10 riders then formed the day's break, we were treated to the mesmerising sight of the entire Groupama-FDJ team going full gas in pursuit of Sagan ahead of the intermediate sprint.
Perhaps the ultimate show of respect for Sagan and his supreme armoury came from his maglia ciclamino rival Arnaud Demare, who was putting in the biggest pulls himself. Despite having beaten the Slovakian to three stages already, and despite the prospect of a fourth win on the cards on Wednesday, the Frenchman was only too aware of the danger even an out-of-form Sagan could pose.
Having reduced the gap at one point to just 20 seconds, Groupama eventually folded; the Sagan break could not be broken. The gap swelled and Sagan took the intermediate sprint to reduce his deficit to 45 points. Surely that would be that; Sagan would succumb to the inevitable on the succession of spiky climbs littering the finale, opening the door to one of the peloton's young bucks to take the spoils.
For if 2020 is the year of Covid positives and topsy-turvy race calendars, it is also the year the old guard has been wholly eclipsed by the youngsters.
Alejandro Valverde, Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas, Vincenzo Nibali, Fabio Aru, Tom Dumoulin, Elia Viviani and Sagan – these are all riders who had failed to pick up a win in 2020. For many of them, these winless runs stretch back much further than one year.
For Sagan, the last triumph came in Stage 5 of the 2019 Tour de France. Since then, the former triple world champion seemed to have become something of an anachronism; his rainbow jersey a thing of the past, even his green jersey now long forgotten.
It's been a year where the likes of Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, Mads Pedersen and Marc Hirschi have all beaten Sagan in the kind of finishes he used to love, where Sam Bennett ended his green domination on the Tour, and Demare has had him in his pocket in all the Giro sprints.
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A sign from the Peter Sagan fan club being held before stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia 2020
Image credit: Getty Images
But Sagan chose the right day to bounce back to his best. A day the world was watching in the belief that what they were watching they would soon not be able to watch.
And boy did the showman deliver. Did he fade once those sprint points were in his jersey pocket? Did he ****. He rode the steep double-digit ramps bullishly alongside Dario Cataldo and Ganna, then rode clear with Ben Swift on the penultimate climb.
When Pello Bilbao managed to bridge over from the pack, Sagan spotted the threat and rode away from Swift on the second and final ascent outside Tortoreto, before keeping his cool on the wet, slippery descent.
As the race favourites attacked one another behind, this was a different Sagan we were seeing – the ultimate proof being that even a late attack by the American Brandon McNulty wasn't enough to consign a fatigued Sagan to his fourth second place of the race.
No, not today. As the sun broke through the clouds to reveal a rainbow over the Giro, it was Sagan who struck gold with a victory that will go down as one of the finest of his illustrious career.
The 143rd pro win may have taken 15 months since the 142nd but it was worth the wait. Sagan had got the monkey of his back and joined the exclusive club of riders to have tasted success in all three of cycling's Grand Tours. And trust Sagan to be the 100th rider to do so – always one for the headline, eh? His win means that club now boasts 21 active riders.
On top of that, centurion Sagan is a member of the far more limited club of riders who have won a stage in all three Grand Tours in their first participation in those races – a club which includes a Slovenian who had seemingly eclipsed the Slovenian somewhat this season, Primoz Roglic.
"I'm very happy, finally – I've been trying since when we started the season again with Strade Bianche, San Remo, the Tour de France," Sagan said. "I was a lot of time on the podium or top five but my last victory was last year in the Tour de France, already a long time ago.
For sure I did not have the plan [to go solo]. When I already accepted second, third, fourth place, and I let it go and I don't try anymore – and now the victory comes. I'm very happy for that. Finally I won in my style, I do the race, do some show, take the victory it's something special.
Some show it was. It may have been 461 days since his last win, but it won't be anywhere near as long before his next. In fact, it would take a brave person to bet against Sagan adding another before this race is over – and giving Demare a run for his money in the ciclamino battle. Provided, of course, the Giro is allowed to run its course.
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