As L’Equipe reports, Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies) will not race the Tour of Flanders, a race he won in 2016.
The 32-year-old Slovakian was not a major factor at the E3 Saxo Bank Classic or Gent-Wevelgem over the weekend, landing 68th in the former and not finishing the latter. TotalEnergies nevertheless put a rider on the podium in at Gent-Wevelgem with Dries van Gestel finishing third.
According to L’Equipe, the decision to skip Flanders was a mutual one between rider and team as Sagan works to find form.
The news comes a little over two months after Sagan’s offseason program was derailed by a COVID-19 positive, for the second straight year.
He will apparently undergo testing as he looks for answers as to why he is not at his best right now. In the meantime, he will apparently continue racing away from the biggest Classics, with an expected start on the horizon at the Circuit de la Sarthe. Geoffrey Soupe will take his place in the TotalEnergies lineup at the Tour of Flanders.