'We want to be in tune with Peter Sagan to achieve great things together': Says TotalEnergies sports director on balancing Sagan and team identity

Team TotalEnergies are ready for the arrival of their huge name signing of Peter Sagan, but the team says it is keen to keep its identity whilst still letting Sagan "do his thing". 

The announcement of Sagan to TotalEnergies was rumoured for quite some time, especially after Patrick Lefevere of Deceuninck - Quick-Step said he was not interested, so it wasn't really a surprise.

However, now Sagan is about to join the team - along with his entourage of Maciej Bodnar, Daniel Oss, Juraj Sagan, sports director Ján Valach, a mechanic, a trainer and his own press officer at the team training camp in Calpe -TotalEnergies has laid out its intentions.

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In an interview with RTBF Sports, TotalEnergies sports director Benoît Génauzeau said: "We are at the beginning of the start of our collaboration - a few weeks ago, we met Peter in person for the first time for a visit to the team headquarters. 

"We wanted him to understand where he was going to set foot because our identity is strong and we claim it. We wanted Peter to be able to discover the soul of our team thanks to this visit."

Sagan has spent the last five years with the German squad Bora-Hansgrohe adding his third world title as well as breaking the record for the most overall wins of the points classification at the Tour de France.

Now Sagan is aiming for a new challenge as TotalEnergies look towards eventually joining the WorldTour, Sagan is joining the likes of Niki Terpstra, Edvald Boasson Hagan and Niccolò Bonifazio in the team.

"He is someone who needs a close and trusting environment," Génauzeau continued. 

"That's why we chose to welcome him with some of his teammates and some members of his staff so that he finds himself in a known and trusted environment. Now, the challenge for us will also be to succeed in integrating him into the team. 

"We want to continue to cultivate the soul of the team, with our way of doing things and our instinct. And we want to be in tune with Peter to achieve great things together."

Sagan has also voiced how he would like to potentially ride more alternate races such as gravel and mountain biking while at the team, a plan new boss Jean-René Bernaudeau is keen to encourage.