VN news ticker: Tony Martin to retire after world championships, Peter Sagan scores on home roads at Tour of Slovakia
Here's the news making headlines for Sunday, September 19.
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Tony Martin to retire after world championships
Tony Martin will be hanging up his wheels later this week.
The German veteran confirmed Sunday that he will retire after racing the world championships TT and the mixed relay this Wednesday.
“Today I want to announce that the upcoming time trial and mixed relay world championships will be the last races in my career. Such a far-reaching decision is of course not easy to make,” Martin said. “Cycling has been a large part of my life for a long time, with highs and lows, big successes and losses, crashes and comebacks. What many young riders dream of, I have achieved.”
Martin, 36, was one of the dominant time trialists of his generation, winning four world titles from 2011 through 2016. He also won the German national TT title ten times and scored five Tour de France stages, three of them time trials. His 17-year pro career saw him riding with Team HTC, Quick-Step, Katusha, and finally Jumbo-Visma.
Martin rides into the worlds Sunday off the back of a Tour that saw him hit the deck several times before abandoning on stage 11. The German powerhouse cited concerns around safety as one factor motivating his retirement.
“In the last few months I have been thinking more about what is to come after cycling. The bad crashes this year have also caused me to question whether I am ready to continue to face the risks that our sport involves,” he said.
“I have decided that I do not want to, especially since race safety has not improved despite the many discussions about courses and barriers. Hopefully, the cycling world will listen to the plans presented by my team and other teams.
“Therefore I want to be fair to myself, my family and all my colleagues and end my career as a pro cyclist. I want to say farewell in a fitting manner at the Worlds TT, which I won four times. I have trained hard for it.”
Peter Sagan scores on home roads at Tour of Slovakia
Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) won his home race at the Tour of Slovakia on Sunday.
Sagan finished second behind Itamar Einhorn (Israel Start-Up Nation) in the final stage sprint to defend his overnight GC lead and take his first stage-race GC win since the 2015 Tour of California.
https://twitter.com/BORAhansgrohe/status/1439570117386457088
Sagan had finished in the top-3 on four of the race’s five stages, but was edged out in the sprint each time and was never able to hit the top step of the podium. He was able to see the positives nonetheless.
“It’s a special day. It’s my very first Tour of Slovakia appearance, so winning the final makes me very happy,” Sagan said. “I would have liked to have had a few stage wins but I think the yellow jersey is more important.”
Jannik Steimle (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) and Cees Bol (DSM) rounded out the final podium in Trnava on Sunday.
Matteo Trentin wins Trofeo Matteotti
Matteo Trentin (UAE-Emirates) kicked away in the final five kilometers to beat Jhonatan Restrepo (Androni Giocattoli) and Valentin Ferron (TotalEnergies) at the Trofeo Matteotti on Sunday.
It was Trentin’s first victory since he won the same race in 2019, putting an end to a season of very near misses. The Italian has finished in the top-5 11 times this year and narrowly missed the podium at the European championships road race earlier this month.
Trentin will now head to the worlds full of confidence as he lines up as part of a strong Italian road race squad.
“The race was very tough all day. I wanted to attack on the last lap on the long climb, but Ferron made the first move, so I joined him and then we pulled together,” Trentin said. “On the last stretch, I attacked again and, when at 5km I noticed that Ferron was on the limit and Restrepo was coming back to us from behind, I put in one final dig that brought me to the finish.
“I’m really happy, it was about time that I won a race again.”
https://twitter.com/TeamEmiratesUAE/status/1439592642975764491