Peto Sagan began the 2019 Tour of California with a win in Sacramento and he finished with a second place in Pasadena. In between, he had a few close ones, wore a green jersey, lost the jersey, and nearly landed on the hood of our car on his way down Mt. Baldy following stage six. Here’s what Peto said at the end of stage seven and the end of the race:
“It was quite a chaotic stage, with so many attacks, counter attacks and moves in the peloton and the breakaways. All that action made it a tough one but in the end, the bunch entered the final lap of the circuit in Pasadena together for a fast sprint finish,” Sagan said. “I was well positioned in the finale but probably I reacted a bit late to Bol’s sprint. I think I can be satisfied with the performance we had here, both mine and of the team. We had a victory, two podium places and put in a great effort throughout the week.”
There’s much more to the 2019 Tour of California story than this, but you’ve likely gotten that info elsewhere. One thing to add: a cycling sage friend of our mentioned the one thing that could have gone differently for the Education First team (pictured above). “One of my favorite teams, but their first blunder was giving GC to Van Garderen instead of Uran, he said. “All downhill from there.” Indeed. Congrats to 20-year-old Tadej Pogačar. Nice work all week. . . especially on Baldy.
[Link: Tour of California]