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Peter Sagan reportedly set for Astana switch with €4m salary

Specialized keen to keep world champion in the fold with move to Kazakh team

Peter Sagan could be headed to Astana for the 2017 season on an annual salary of €4 million according to a report in Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport.

The newspaper says that Specialized – bike sponsor of Astana, as well as Sagan’s current Tinkoff team, which folds at the end of this season – is behind the rumoured move.

Etixx-Quick Step, likewise supplied by the US bike firm, has also been reported as wanting to sign the man who will be the hottest property in the coming transfer season – and moreover, a rider Specialized seems determined to retain.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, a potential move to Etixx-Quickstep, while making sense from a sporting point of view given the Tour of Flanders champion’s prowess over the cobbles, has floundered since team manager Patrick Lefevere is unwilling to meet the 26-year-old’s wage demands.

Astana, which will see 2013 Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali depart at the end of this season, therefore appears to have moved into pole position for the Slovak’s signature, although no official announcement can be made until 1 August, when the transfer season opens.

While Fabio Aru will lead the team’s Grand Tour ambitions, the team would also have a new focus on the Classics, spearheaded by Sagan, who besides that Flanders victory - his first in a Monument - also won Gent-Wevelgem this year.

At the weekend, the Slovak won the points jersey at the Tour of California for the sixth time in seven editions – the sole blank being last season when that prize went to Mark Cavendish, but Sagan took the overall.

He has also topped the points classification at the past four editions of the Tour de France, a record bettered only by Erik Zabel who won six in a row at the turn of the Millennium.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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4 comments

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Bikebikebike | 8 years ago
0 likes

But he doesn't need to dope to win, so why is he going there?

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PennineRider | 8 years ago
1 like

Sagan is an intelligent, impulsive extrovert. I don't think he'll fit in with the cynical culture at Astana. I think he knows this, but he's thinking "yeah, but 4 million Euros! I can make it work."

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mrchrispy | 8 years ago
0 likes

One of the most popular riders of peloton going to the least popular team.

Shame, the guy has to make money while he can but still....you've got to have personal standards.

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PennineRider | 8 years ago
6 likes

I think it's a shame that Sagan is heading for this rather tainted team.

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