Peter Sagan’s quest for Olympic Games glory is expected to begin February 11, 2024 at the inaugural HERO Abu Dhabi cross-country MTB race. From there, he has scheduled three XCO races in Europe with international fields before taking the start in Brazil for the opening round of the UCI World Cup season.
Recently retired from his UCI road career, Sagan had a single focus for 2024 - Paris. But while he was ‘the man’ at the Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées winning seven points classification titles, this time the finish line is on dirt at Elancourt Hill for the Olympic Games, the men’s cross-country MTB event on July 29.
“And my plans for next year? I will do a training camp in South Africa, then I will go straight to Abu Dhabi for the first race which will be on the 11th of February,” he said in an interview with Cyclinguptodate.com. “I always said: I was born on MTB, I will ‘die’ on MTB.”
At the end of February, Sagan will compete in a pair of Spanish races, Internacionales de Chelva on the 18th and Super Cup Massi Banyoles a week later. In mid-March he heads to the Marseille France Cup. The UCI Mountain Bike calendar for next year includes eight stops for cross-country races, with the first two in Brazil in April, and Sagan was expected at both.
Across the weeks leading up to competitions, Sagan said that he would build strength in the gym and also focus on fundamentals, “the decisive point for me is technique: I have to improve”.
“In order to be maximally prepared for MTB, I try to make a good foundation. The foundation is always important, especially in winter. But I still add some quality, without exaggeration,” he told a Slovakian journalist for Cyclinguptodate.
The three-time road World Champion competed at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games for Slovakia in cross-country mountain bike, a puncture early in the race taking him out of medal contention, and he missed the Tokyo Games due to an injury. His roots in cycling go back to mountain biking, when he won a junior world title in 2008.
In order to qualify for XCO at the Paris Olympic Games, he looks to scoop up World Cup points this summer. However, he faces an uphill battle to earn enough points to qualify a spot for Slovakia. As a country, Slovakia was 37th in the UCI nations rankings and only the top 19 nations earn a start. As an individual, he has until May 26 to amass qualification points.
At MTB races in 2024, Sagan will compete in “a special jersey that will have the same graphics as the Specialized Factory Racing Team, but will be produced by Sportful, my personal sponsor”.
He said he would not participate in mountain stage races, such as Cape Epic, as the preparation was “completely different” than the Olympic cross-country events which require only an hour of full energy output. He added that a multi-day mountain bike event like Cape Epic was more difficult than road races.
As for a return to the road, he confirmed he would like to race for the RRK Group-Pierre Baguette-Benzinol team, where his older brother Juraj is a directeur sportif, but it was not official, yet. “I would like to do some road races with them, but only as training for MTB,” noting he could race in spring at a few 1.2 races which wrap around World Cups, such as GP Slovenian Istria, GP Goriska and GP Adria Mobil.
"I'm not sad I'm finishing on the road. I am more than happy to continue with mountain bike and see if I am able to do something or not," he told Cyclingnews near the end of his road career this fall.
Sagan last won on the road three weeks ago, wearing his TotalEnergies kit in a sprint victory ahead of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) in Monaco after 45 laps of racing in exhibition race, Beking Monaco Criterium.
