A look back at Peter Sagan's impressive career and 2018 Paris-Roubaix win

Peter Sagan is a living cycling legend. The Slovak won numerous big races in his career, including Paris-Roubaix in 2018, one of his biggest triumphs, but also made negative headlines on and off the bike. This is the story of 'Peter The Great', one of the best riders of his generation.

Sagan was born on 26 January 1990 in Žilina to Lubomir Sagan and Helena Saganova. He has two brothers, Juraj and Milan, and one sister, Daniela.

In his youth, Sagan showed himself a very big talent on the bike. He excelled on the road as well as in mountain biking and cyclocross.

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In 2009 he raced for Dukla Trenčín-Merida, a continental team, but a year later the then 19-year-old Sagan took the plunge to the WorldTour.

He signed a contract with Italian team Liquigas-Doimo, where he would stay until 2015.

The young Sagan immediately made his mark in his first year in the pros. His wins included two stages and the points classification in Paris-Nice, and a stage in the Tour de Romandie.

In 2011, Sagan simply continued his good streak. He triumphed in the Tour of Poland, among others, and impressively took three stages in the Vuelta.

At a young age, Sagan became an established name in the peloton, but there would be many more great things to come in the Slovak's career ...

In 2012, he would take part in the Tour de France for the first time, and with great success.

Sagan won no less than three stages in the 2012 Tour de France, including the opening stage from Liège to Seraing. As icing on the cake, Sagan also took home the green jersey, a prize he would win seven (!) times in his career, which is still a record.

The following year, Sagan also excelled in the classics. He finished second in Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders, and grabbed wins in Ghent-Wevelgem and the Brabantse Pijl. He also won the green jersey in the Tour de France and the GP Montreal later that year. Overall: another milestone in Sagan's career.

He also finished sixth at the World Championships in 2013, a disappointment he would impressively wipe away two years later.

In 2014, Sagan took victory in the E3 Harelbeke and won another green jersey, but that would prove next to nothing compared to what awaited him in late 2015.

In September 2015, the Slovak, who was now racing for Tinkoff-Saxo, crowned himself World Road Cycling Champion for the first time in his career. Sagan beat Michael Matthews and Ramūnas Navardauskas.

It would be the first of three consecutive world titles for Sagan, a feat no one had ever done before or repeated after.

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In 2016, Sagan would reach another milestone in his career by winning his first monument. He triumphed in the Tour of Flanders by finishing ahead of Fabian Cancellara and Sep Vanmarcke.

Sagan had now been among the world's best for years, something he would underscore in 2018 - in the BORA-hansgrohe jersey - by adding Paris-Roubaix to his record and finally winning the famous cobblestone trophy.

With three world titles and seven green jerseys, Sagan has an impressive record, but he is not without controversy. In the peloton, for instance, he has regularly quarreled with colleagues, who think the Slovenian often rides on the edge (and over it).

In the 2020 Tour de France, for example, Sagan got into an argument with Wout van Aert about an incident in the sprint of stage 11.

The footage of that particular stage showed Sagan bumping into Van Aert. The latter clearly showed his discontent after the finish with a clear four-letter word and finger gesture towards his rival, who was disqualified.

"It was dangerous and unauthorised what Peter did. It was definitely not my fault. He was rightly disqualified," Van Aert told Belgian public-service sports brand Sporza a day later.

Sagan himself was not aware of any wrongdoing. "What I think about that sprint today? Nothing, nothing, haha," Sporza reported.

Two years later, Sagan and Van Aert got into another fight. This time it was the Slovenian who accused his opponent of unacceptable sprinting behaviour and gave the Belgian a raised finger.

With this kind of behaviour, Sagan did not exactly make himself popular in the peloton. Off the bike, too, the rider already showed himself in a negative light.

Sagan faced a judge for these intoxication-related charges in 2021, but was busted again in 2023.

Sagan was detained intoxicated on a scooter in Monaco, his residence, on 12 May 2023. According to road.cc, he had a blood alcohol level of 1.46 mg/l – almost six times the legal limit.

Sagan apologized on Instagram. "I am very sorry that I screwed up in a moment of weakness," he said. "I want to apologize to my family, my friends, my team, our sponsors and everyone who supported me. I am committed to learning from this mistake and becoming a better person in the future."

This came at great cost to Sagan: his driver's licence was taken away for 3 months, and he was also given a 3-month suspended prison sentence.

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The incident is a blemish on the career of Sagan, who stopped racing in the WorldTour after the 2023 season and is now hoping to qualify for the Olympic mountain biking event. The Slovak will try to do so as a great cycling champion, but not without controversy.