Deering John - My World

Copyright 2018 by Peter Sagan

First published in 2018 by Yellow Jersey, an imprint of Vintage.

Vintage is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies.

All rights reserved. Published in Canada by VeloPress, a division of Competitor Group, Inc.

Peter Sagan has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work.

3002 Sterling Circle, Suite 100

Boulder, CO 803012338 USA

VeloPress is the leading publisher of books on endurance sports and is a division of Pocket Outdoor Media. Focused on cycling, triathlon, running, swimming, and nutrition/diet, VeloPress books help athletes achieve their goals of going faster and farther. Preview books and contact us at velopress.com.

Distributed in the United States and Canada by Ingram Publisher Services

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Names: Sagan, Peter, 1990- author. | Deering, John, author.

Title: My world / Peter Sagan ; with John Deering.

Description: Boulder, CO : VeloPress, 2018. | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018045051 (print) | LCCN 2018046888 (ebook) | ISBN 9781948006118 (ebook) | ISBN 9781937715946 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: Sagan, Peter, 1990- | Cyclists--Slovakia--Biography.

Classification: LCC GV1051.S33 (ebook) | LCC GV1051.S33 A3 2018 (print) | DDC 796.6/2092 [B] --dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018045051

v. 3.1

A note to readers: Move the cursor over the art and click on it to enlarge.

To enlarge art: If you have a Kindle with a manual cursor control, move your cursor up to the art until you see a magnifying-glass icon. Click the cursor control, and the art will enlarge to full screen size. Click the cursor control again to pick an even closer zoom. If you have a Kindle with a touch screen, touch the art until it is highlighted in black, then release, and the art will enlarge to full screen size. Touching the screen, spread or pinch together your fingers to further enlarge or reduce the art.

To my son, Marlon.

This book is about my biggest victories in cycling.

You are my biggest victory in life.

CONTENTS

Table of Contents

SEPTEMBER 24, 2017

For the 10th time today, the masts of the tall ships loom up on our right. The scent in my nostrils changes as it always does at this point. From the damp cool of a Scandinavian weekend afternoon to the tang of the harbor, flavored with the smoky promise of dozens of fast-food grills selling every kind of edible meat or fish that you can cram into some bread and sell to a hungry cycling fan.

This is the long sweeping left-hand bend that separates the waterfront from the colorful townhouses that characterize this beautiful old port. The first time we came along here, it was at quite a gentle pace, with barely 40 kilometers ridden. That must have been shortly after 11:00 a.m. this morning. The next half a dozen or so times we came past those rocking masts and chattering rigging, the intensity had risen enough to mean there were fewer cyclists hanging on each time. There were nearly 200 of us this morning; now, after the last two or three hard laps of this hilly little circuit in Bergen, there look to be around 60 of us left. A Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) official starts clanging furiously at a big old brass bell to tell us that there is one lap to go. Im suddenly acutely aware of the No. 1 on my back. Its now four in the afternoon, and Ive probably got about half an hour left as UCI World Champion.

The race was really confusing.

It had started slow, which suited me. I hadnt eaten or drunk properly for a couple of days since having a ridiculously badly timed upset stomach at home in Monaco on Friday. And that had followed a week off the bike due to a flu virus. I dont want to moan about being sick because it doesnt happen that often, but suffice it to say the last month was not the preparation Id had in mind going into one of the highlight events of the racing calendar. Id been world champion for the past two years, and there was every chance that I was going to lose the UCI rainbow jersey today even if Id been in splendid health. Most people were predicting that the circuit would be too difficult for a rider they considered to be a sprinter who could get over a hill rather than a true puncheur like Julian Alaphilippe, Philippe Gilbert, or my predecessor as world champion, Michal Kwiatkowski (or Kwiato, as we call him). They also thought that I would be too well marked to succeed a third time, with the bigger teams whistling Wont Get Fooled Again to themselves. In addition, the smart money believed that those same teams would swamp our little Slovakian band of brothers when we needed to control the race.

A break had gone away early. The race began in a little town not far away before settling into these dozen circuits of downtown Bergen, the harborside, the seafront, Salmon Hill. So many races go through a desperate scramble in the first hour as everybody tries to get themselves into the day-long race-shaping break that will inevitably be hauled back by the strongest riders, but fortunately for my churning stomach that never happened. The break formed. It went. By the time they were 10 minutes up the road, the rest of us 200 or so hopefuls started riding a bit, and by then I was beginning to feel like a bike rider again.

I should have been here for the last 10 days or so. I had been planning to hook up with my BORA-hansgrohe teammates for the team time trial a week before today. The TTT is a relatively new addition to the world cycling championships roster, and its a bit weird as you still ride for your regular professional team, rather than your country, as in every other event at the worlds. That opportunity to wave a patriotic flag rather than wear the baseball cap of a bank, bike company, or a kitchen exhaust fan manufacturer is what gives the worlds such a draw for fans. Also, as the racing takes place over a circuit rather than point-to-point, its a much more watchable event for the fans, and they come from all over the world to shout, cheer, drink, andhopefullycelebrate. Slovakians are very good at all these testing disciplines.

BORA-hansgrohe had claimed a top-ten finish in my absence, and my Slovakian teammates were expecting to be doing the road race without me too. Id hauled my sorry, sweaty ass out of bed and flown out of Nice yesterday morning, spending most of the 2,500 kilometers in the toilet.

Id been pretty quiet on the start line, glad, and, frankly, amazed just to be there. As we passed over the finish line for the first time when we reached the Bergen circuit, I turned to my brother Juraj riding alongside me, both of us resplendent in our blue, red, and white Slovakia skinsuits. Take a good look, I told him. I dont think well be seeing this line again.