- [Matt] Peter, are you ready to show me some skills?
- [Peter] No.
- Thank you.
- You saw the last time, what I did in Belgium.
- Oh yeah. I know.
♪ [music] ♪
Is Peter Sagan the most skillful rider in the Pro Peloton?
Well, I'm going to try and find out by my rules.
- It's parked.
- He's just run over my foot! Can we do another take?
I'm not so sure I can beat Peter Sagan on the road these days,
but I've got four other tests up my sleeve.
♪ [music] ♪
What have you done since the Tour de France?
Just training mostly, apart from the criteriums?
- No, I just did three criteriums. And then I did five days without bike.
A little bit... I got to see the sea.
- Okay. Myrtle Beach?
- It was good. Yeah, a little bit of relax, and then I did a little preparation
before the World Cup. But I want to now concentrate for the World Championships.
- It's a course that could suit you, I think. In the full run,
in the Tour de France, that stage, when you broke away on the descent,
that was pretty amazing. You wanted to try and catch, obviously,
the guy that was away, and you dropped the entire breakaway. What do you feel
when you're descending like that? What allows you to go so quickly?
Is it confidence in your bike or just you like the feel of the speed?
- Okay, when I am in grupetto, I never go fast like that. I did some risk also,
but I did it all for victory. I have to wait for second place.
Why I have to risk? Oh, but for sure, I did this descent two times before.
And I know it's two, three dangerous corners. I was lucky also, in some turns.
- Yeah, you were taking it right the way to the edge. I mean, the bike was really
going but you kept it up. Do you think it's your background in mountain biking
that's giving you these skills and the confidence on the bike that you
transferred across to the road bike? What do you think?
- Yeah, for sure. You can take technique when you are young.
After that, you're growing up and you are old.
- Like me.
- It depends. But it's more harder to be flexible and get the technique part,
I don't know, on the bike, on the moto, on the ski, maybe. All of them are different.
But I was riding from nine years old, and I did a lot of stupid things on the bike,
like training, you know? And then, maybe something I get from that also.
When I was a kid and after now there's not any more time to do fun on the bike.
I have to do it in the races.
- You must enjoy it, though. Everybody likes descending fast.
But you must really enjoy it. It's fun, isn't it?
- Yeah. It depends. In the race, it's not fun, because you go full gas,
you've got to really concentrate. And yeah, you have pressure from the team,
maybe. You want to do...you're bettering yourself, and then it's maybe more fun
after the race. But in the race, you're not thinking about fun. You just go.
- You think about victory and trying to win.
- Yeah.
- Selfie.
This is how I think I can beat you at something.
- Ah, maybe.
- Maybe not.
- If you had a boulder.
- It's too windy to take my hands off. Your turn with your phone for the selfie.
I'm going to see, we're going to compare your selfie to my selfie.
Because I am going to beat you some time, Pete, you know. Or I'll try.
- Oh yeah? Why do you want always competition?
- This is a good climb.
- Yeah. Also for me. I'm sweating.
- That was wonderful. So talking about climbs, I saw California.
My God, it was amazing. You know, taking the victory in a really good time trial,
and then on the climb you managed to limit your losses and ride at a tempo you know
you can sustain.
- Yeah. I did my maximum there, I think, and I felt very good because I won also
time trial, which is not very often, no? But after I won the race,
also, thank you, the bonuses that I did.
- Of course. They're so [crosstalk].
- Bonus seconds from the stages before, and that was... Yeah, I never believed
I could win a tour of California. And then I won.
- Rock, paper, scissors.
- Okay, scissor, rock, and paper.
- So after three. So one, two, three. Ah! Okay, another one.
One, two, three! Ah!
- And you didn't win also with this game.
- I lost!
♪ [music] ♪
What do you think? In the Tour de France, obviously, you won the green jersey.
We know you didn't win a stage. But you were second, four or five times.
What kept you fighting for the victory? Was it because you were so hungry
to try and win? You were in almost every breakway.
- The first thing, you have to feel good. If you don't feel good, it's very hard
to do something. And then, you know, if you go with a sprint rush,
the other sides it's [inaudible 00:07:21]. And after you are in breakaways,
all different other sorts of...
- Everybody's watching you, though. They have their eye on you.
- Yeah. Then you come in in the climb, there's some small climb.
On the other side it's [inaudible 00:07:37] and difference. And you know,
it's like I am almost everywhere but after that, somebody's always more stronger.
Second is almost first. A very big difference, I know.
♪ [music] ♪
I'm trailing. [inaudible 00:08:02]
- Coffee stop. The 40k is in the bag. Very hilly indeed. Pete looking a bit more
sprightly than me. He must have went pretty deep to hold on, so a coffee would
be well deserved.
Guns of the peloton.
- Enjoy the battle.
- Peter Sagan. Here we go. What's the damage going to be?
Thirty-two point four.
- Thanks, man.
- It's not bad.
- Thirty-four.
- Thirty-four?
♪ [music] ♪
The bunny hop.
- Ah, it's hard on the grass.
- All right, here we go.
♪ You got air on your knee. You got trouble. You got me. ♪
♪ You got pictures on your side. Keep it neat and keep it high. ♪
- Well, Peter, thanks very much, mate. I think you definitely are the best.
I can't really compare, really, so just thanks very much.
- You have to learn.
- I have to learn, yeah. I have to look to the master.
For more Vuelta content, click just on Peter's helmet, there.
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