Bora-Hansgrohe confirms Sagan will race Giro, miss northern classics

It’s official: Peter Sagan will race the Giro d’Italia and miss the northern classics.

An eternal favorite at such races as Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, which he’s won each of once, Sagan will deliver on his promise to race the Giro d’Italia for the first time in his career this year.

“I gave my word, and Peter, too,” Bora-Hansgrohe manager Ralph Denk said Tuesday. “It was a handshake agreement, and that means something, and that’s why we will fulfill our agreement to go to the Giro.”

With the Giro and the classics overlapping in the revised racing calendar, Sagan’s commitment to race the Giro will mean that the three-time world champion will miss the northern classics. It will be a first on both counts: it will be Sagan’s Giro debut, and also mark the first time he’s missed the rugged one-day races since he burst onto the scene a decade ago.

“This calendar is not fair to the Giro,” Denk said during a conference call with journalists. “If it was my decision, there would be more respect for the Giro. It would be better to race longer into the winter. We could race the Vuelta a España three weeks later, and make more room for the classics. As it is now, we have to manage it.”

Sagan is currently with his Bora-Hansgrohe teammates at a training camp in Austria to prepare for a return to competition.

Team officials confirmed that Sagan will also race the Tour de France and world championships. He’s slated to return to racing at Strade Bianche on August 1. With the way his calendar stacks up, he will still have a chance to win one of the monuments that has so far eluded him, with a planned start at Milano-Sanremo.

Peter Sagan’s tentative race schedule

Strade Bianche

Milano-Torino

Milano-Sanremo

Critérium du Dauphiné

Tour de France

World championships

Giro d’Italia