Peter Sagan 'needs rest' and will ride reduced late season race programme

Peter Sagan will ride a reduced racing programme for the rest of the 2019 season, focusing on the World Championships in Yorkshire after needing rest following a seventh green jersey victory at the Tour de France 2019.

Before Yorkshire, the Bora-Hansgrohe sprinter will ride a handful of one-day races, when in previous years he has ridden the Vuelta a España and the BinckBank Tour in the autumn.

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Sagan is set to line up at the EuroEyes Cyclassics Hamburg on 25 August before heading to Canada for the GP de Québec and the GP de Montréal.

His final two races before the Worlds will then be the Belgian Primus Classic and Gooiske Pijl.

Sagan was originally down for the men's road race at the European Championships, but instead headed off to the Gran Fondo Panama for promotional duties, as he aims for the last peak of his season in Yorkshire.

Sagan will be aiming for a fourth Worlds title, having picked up three consecutive rainbow jerseys between 2015-2017, after securing his record-breaking seventh green jersey at this year's Tour.

The French Grand Tour took it's toll on Sagan, however, according to Bora-Hansgrohe sports director Ján Valach.

He told Slovakian newspaper Pravda: "The Tour is always hard and Peter managed it perfectly. He won the points classification masterfully and, at first glance, easily.

"However, it was a great struggle. He won it point by point and eventually it paid off. He didn't give anyone else a chance and it cost a lot of strength."

Valach admitted Sagan could have added one or two more stages to his solitary stage victory at the 2019 Tour, saying his sprinter fought all the way and only missed out by the smallest of margins.

He wouldn't, however, be drawn on whether Sagan will line up for the race next year, saying he hadn't yet discussed it with the 29-year-old.

"Peter had had enough after the Tour and needed some rest. Of course, he must be motivated and he can also focus on other things, but when he gets back to the start of the Tour, he'll want to be successful again," Valach said.

Alongside his 12 Tour de France stage wins, Sagan has taken four stage victories at the Vuelta a España in his career. The Giro d'Italia is notably missing from his Grand Tour palmàres, having never ridden the race, and Valach thinks it could be a possibly for Sagan in the future.

"Maybe he will try the Giro once, why not? But whether it will be next year, I don't know. 

"It is certain that he would then have to adapt his programme, which has been very similar in recent years. However, I would not see a problem in that, Peter has proved many times that he can prepare well for his peaks of the season."

Sagan will face a tough battle to reclaim the rainbow jersey in Yorkshire, with Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus) and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) hotly tipped for the win.