Sagan is already at the XCO World Cup in Mairipora, it seems that nothing is stopping his Olympic dream

Last February, Peter Sagan was competing in the Chelva Internationals when his heart rate shot up to over 200 beats per minute, something completely unusual that has since led him to undergo two preventive heart surgeries. Just 2 months later, he is ready to resume his plan to reach the Olympics, which has led him to travel to the Mairipora XCO World Cup in Brazil.

Peter Sagan is already at the Mairipora XCO World Cup

On February 23, he underwent the first heart surgery in which a recorder was implanted, he recovered, and in March, while scouting the Marserlla circuit to compete in XCO again, all the alarms went off on his heart rate monitor. On March 20, he had the second heart surgery in Italy, this time to perform a transcateter ablation to address the supraventricular tachycardia he had experienced.

The last operation required 15 days of recovery before getting back on the bike, but if we finally see him start at the Mairipora XCO World Cup, only 25 days will have passed since his surgery.

Although his participation in the first World Cup event is not confirmed, the 3-time Road World Champion is already at the Brazil circuit with the rest of his team, wearing the Specialized Factory Racing kit like one of them, although we have not yet seen him scout the circuit on his new Specialized Epic 8.

He does not give up on his Olympic dream

After retiring in 2023 as a professional road cyclist, Sagan has fulfilled his promise to return to mountain biking to finish his career. His main motivation this season was to qualify for the Paris Olympics this summer.

But the Slovakian has it increasingly difficult as his country is currently in 36th position in the UCI country rankings and should be among the top 19 before May 26 to secure a spot. To achieve this, his strategy involves earning the maximum points for his country himself during this time. So he will have to participate in as many UCI events as possible until then.