Peter Sagan: The Terminator

CEBU, Philippines - I’ve written about Peter Sagan (Cannondale) before, about how exciting he was (and still is). Two years later, he is still  the most exciting professional rider.

He’s not just exciting, but he is the consummate showman  and he rides for the crowd and the fans. Who can forget the wheelies he did after crossing the line first in the 2013 classic Gent-Wevelgem? And just before he was caught on the way to the famous climb Alped’Huez? The firs rider I saw doing a wheeling was Robbie McEwen, but he just didn’t have the panache to pull the stunt off like Sagan does.

Sagan is also the most versatile rider in the peloton. He could climb, sprint, time trial with the best. Best of all, he’s probably the best descender in the world today. This may be blasphemous, but I think he’s better than Fabian Cancellara.

Sagan has owned the green jersey of the Tour the last two years as the most consistent finisher. Consider this since 2012, he has ridden 49 stages of the Tour. Forty-three of those days were in the green jersey. He also finished in the top 5, 23 times. So consistent that even the great Eddy Merckx said that he saw himself in Sagan!

But what I like about Sagan is his cold bloodedness. He is a gambler. He has the ability of reining his urge to attack when 99% of your mind and body says to attack. He can bluff his rivals into making silly mistakes and turning it into wins, and nobody is better than the Terminator at that.

While he has won four stages in the Tour the past two years, he is still  looking for his first win in this year. It’s not going to get easy, especially for a rider of his caliber. But I’m sure he’ll get at least one.

Vincenzo Nibali

The team of the yellow jersey, ASTANA, has said that they’re willing to give up the yellow jersey for now, knowing, that Nibali has a +2-minute lead over his rivals. It’s a racing tradition that if you have the yellow jersey, it’s your obligation to lead the peloton. With 14 stages to go, ASTANA is afraid that it’ll burn out their domestiques and relinquishing the yellow jersey will keep the team fresh during crunch time. (FREEMAN)