Peter Sagan

There is a spark in Peter Sagan. You can see desire in a rider's pedal strokes, the way they set their shoulders and stake their claim to the wheel in front ...

Sagan (in white) is still on Van Aert’s wheel (in green), with Jakobsen and his train just to the left. Sagan has to lay off the power for a moment during the Stuyven squeeze, and even the world’s best sprinter couldn’t have recouped that loss. This is where things go sideways, and the reason why Sagan hasn’t racked up wins like he used to comes back into focus. Sixth on the day is unimpressive on paper. The gap between Stuyven and Jakobsen is 95% the width of one Peter Sagan. He’s right where he wants to be, right on the wheels the entire peloton wants, sitting behind Wout van Aert and off the right hip of Fabio Jakobsen. Sagan, his hands just in front of Ewan’s (meaning he has control over the situation), gives him a little pop to the left and back Ewan goes. Ask around the peloton and he has a reputation, not always a good one, for going where he pleases and moving other riders around as he wants. His talk of switching to mountain biking, stories of late nights in Monaco and altercations with police; these things don’t point to the sort of focus required of today’s peloton, even for a talent of his magnitude. The front of the bunch is still sorting itself in the helicopter shot above. But my Tour notebook today is full of Sagan notes because I’m more interested in how he got there than where he ended up. Sagan’s efforts in the final 1500 meters of Saturday’s chaotic, post-bridge finish, point to a rider who wants something from this Tour de France.