Slovakia is beginning to feel what comes after Peter Sagan. Only one young man has little hope – ŠPORT.sk

The peak of the entire championship came on Sunday. The men’s mass start races were less than 180 km long and promised active driving. This was fulfilled and the peloton was drastically divided before arriving at the circuits in Trento.

In the most difficult and longest ascent of the day, we saw the attack of the French, Spaniards and other strong names, which was beyond the strength of all Slovak cyclists. After the descent to Trento, he was closest to the first main group Peter Saganwho was losing two minutes at that moment. Trinity Patrik Tybor, Juraj Bellan a Juraj Sagan did not continue, Martin Haring a Marek Čanecký they were eight minutes behind. A total of 31 cyclists came to the finish line, including not a single Slovak representative.

It should be noted that the number of cyclists in the finish does not reflect the quality or. the poor quality of the starting field or the severity of the race. It is common for the World Championships, European Championships, Olympic races and classics to be completed by up to 50 people. Leaders who drop out of the fight too soon, domesticates after breaking their robots and cyclists caught up in the escape will wrap up the race. In addition, during national events, the judges withdraw cyclists from a greater distance from the race.

The profile favored classicists and Peter Sagan belonged to a wider range of the strongest names. In the end, the Slovak cyclist did not manage to show anything and left the European Championships without a significant moment. It turned out that the level of the peak was a bit higher and it will be interesting to see how Peter manages to cope with an even busier starting list for the World Cup.

Photo gallery

Slovaks at the European Championships in cycling 2021.

Source: Igor Stančík / SZC

The strongest cyclist did not win

After a very hard introduction, we came to the circuits where Tadej Pogačar started and took an interesting group of cyclists with him. Belgian Remco Evenepoel entered the main group four laps before the finish. Only Benoît Cosnefroy (France), Pavel Sivakov (Russia), Marc Hirschi (Switzerland) and Sonny Colbrelli (Italy) managed to stay behind his rear wheel. They still have a trio from the original escape of Tadej Pogačar, Markus Hoelgaard and Matteo Trentin.

In the penultimate round, Remc Evenepoel’s onslaught began. Only Sonny Colbrelli and Benoît Cosnefroy were enough for his next start and high pace. In the last lap, the Frenchman dropped out at the beginning of the ascent Povo, the pair of the biggest favorites of the race continued ahead.

Remco Evenepoel was still on the top, Sonny Colbrelli didn’t replace him. The Italian needed to survive the hill, which he did, and Remc Evenepoel failed the tactic of “killing” all his opponents at a murderous pace and coming to the finish line himself.

Sonny Colbrelli got into a position from which he simply could not lose. In the final tens of meters, he showed a clear sprint and the young Belgian was left with silver. The Italian home championship was published exclusively. Sonny Colbrelli confirmed great form, but also tactical thinking. Remc Evenepoel missed that. He tried absolutely nothing for a clearly stronger sprinter, and it was once again confirmed that it is not always enough to be the strongest man of the day.

Photo gallery

Slovaks at the European Championships in cycling 2021.

Source: Igor Stančík / SZC

Junior Svrček in Top 10

The European Championship was started on September 8 by individual time trials for juniors and juniors. Slovakia had an iron in the fire by Martin Svrček. In the 22.4-km time trial, the 18-year-old cyclist finished in 16th place with a 92-second loss.

The big day of the hopeful cyclist was to come on Friday. He was long ahead in the mass start race and nurtured hope for the coveted medal success. In the end, he did not catch the decisive start of the trio, which shared the precious metals and crossed the finish line in eighth place. Martin Svrček held the position of the greatest Slovak cycling hope at the championship.

Photo gallery

Slovaks at the European Championships in cycling 2021.

Source: Igor Stančík / SZC

What did ME show us?

The Slovak cyclist is already beginning to feel in full force what comes after Peter Sagan. There is no substitute in the seniors or in the U23 category, and apart from Martin Svrček, there is not a single young cyclist who would mean such a hope.

Sagan’s success will be very difficult to repeat, even in part. The problem is not that Slovakia will not have an elite cyclist able to win the biggest races. We won’t even have a single cyclist in the elite World Tour category next season. This last happened in 2003! In 2004, Matej Jurčo started driving among the elite, followed by Velitsovci, Saganovci, Erik Baška and Michael Kolář.

Although Sagan’s new TotalEnergies team will receive an invitation to events such as the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix, Milan-San Remo and the Tour de Suisse next year, the zero representation in the cycling elite must sound the alarm.