"Loses in technical descents": Peter Sagan compares Pidcock and Van der Poel in XCO and recalls his performance in Rio 2016

Peter Sagan's foray into mountain biking has always been a sort of parallel chapter in his career, but now the Slovak has wanted to look back and put into context what he experienced at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. He does this by connecting that experience with the present, comparing two of the current great names who alternate between road and MTB, namely Tom Pidcock and Mathieu van der Poel.

Peter Sagan speaks for the first time about his mountain bike experience at Rio 2016 and analyzes the differences between Pidcock and Van der Poel

Just a few weeks before the XCO World Cup kicks off, where Van der Poel could be very present this year, the organization has sat down with Peter Sagan to discuss various topics.

The Slovak begins by recalling how complex it is to change disciplines. “Switching from road to mountain biking is really difficult,” he explains, making it clear that his Olympic foray was not improvised, but rather filled with uncertainty from the start.

The Olympic XCO event in Rio was special for several reasons. It marked the only Olympic gold for Nino Schurter after years of being close, and it left Spain with one of its great images with Carlos Coloma's bronze. In that context, Sagan appeared at the starting line as one of the great unknowns of the peloton.

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The Slovak himself begins by recalling how he started in road cycling, as Sagan began his career in mountain biking “I thought, I will try road cycling. If I don’t like it, I will go back to mountain biking. It’s easy, right?” It went quite well for him, and it was after winning three World Championships on the road that he tried to return to MTB and compete in the Olympics. “After six years, I tried to go to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. It was quite complicated.”

In the race, his performance surprised in the early laps. Despite starting from the back, he managed to climb to the front positions before mechanical problems took him out of contention. “I started from the last position and, thanks to my experience as a sprinter, I managed to catch up. In the first two laps, I was in third place when we entered the trail.”

That start confirmed his potential, but it also exposed his limitations. “Technically, I was bad,” he admits. “I could go down any descent, but I didn’t have the necessary technical level.” And that was exactly what caused him to puncture several times and fall completely out of the race.

 

 

 

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Pidcock and Van der Poel, two different paths to MTB

From that experience, Sagan makes a direct comparison with the two riders who today best represent that mix between road and mountain biking.

Regarding Tom Pidcock, his analysis is clear and positive. “You can see that he is riding mountain bikes often. He also makes very good starts and is always in touch with this discipline. Technically, he is very good. If he is feeling well, he has no problems.”

The focus changes when he talks about Mathieu van der Poel, whom he considers disadvantaged due to his lesser continuity in MTB in recent years. “He left mountain biking for a while. I have seen some of his races, and you can tell he is very strong on the bike. He is very powerful on the climbs, but he loses out in the technical downhill sections.”

Because for Sagan, the key lies in the descents, and he insists that it is the descents that mark real differences between XCO specialists and riders coming from the road.

“If you climb very strongly, you need to recover on the descent,” he explains. “But if you are not technically good, you cannot relax.”

That is where, according to him, the gap opens between profiles like Pidcock and Van der Poel. “Mountain bike specialists, if they are technically good, rest on the descents. And then they are ready again for another effort. That is a huge difference.”

His reflection connects directly with what he himself experienced in Rio 2016, where power allowed him to be at the front for a few minutes, but technique and adaptation marked the final result.

At a time when more and more riders combine disciplines, Sagan's experience serves as a reference to understand that the engine is not everything in mountain biking. Technique remains an important filter.