Peter Sagan has said he is keen to speak to Niki Terpstra if the Dutch rider wishes to continue with the team as Sagan says he would bring "great value" to the Classics team.
Sagan, who is joining Team TotalEnergies in 2022 from Bora-Hansgrohe, wants the two-time Monument winner Niki Terpstra to stay at the French team if he wants to continue racing.
In an interview with RIDE Magazine, Sagan said: "I heard rumours that Niki wanted to end his career after this season. But if he wants to continue his career, I definitely want to talk to him."
Terpstra was signed in 2019 as one of the big-name leaders for the French UCI ProTeam but a series of nasty crashes and injuries have meant that he has not performed the way he would have liked.
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This has led to rumours that the 37-year-old rider may be looking to retire at the end of the season, although he recently had a good finish at the Arctic Race of Norway where he finished second on the final stage behind Philipp Walsleban (Alpecin-Fenix) as well as second in the mountain standings.
"Certainly with a view to the Flemish classics, he can be of great value," continued Sagan. "Niki is an experienced man in the spring races. He could play an important role in the team. But of course, it's not my decision whether he can stay. The team has to make that decision."
Terpstra has won both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, as well as multiple semi-Classics, during his time at Deceuninck - Quick-Step but has struggled since leaving with his best result in a while coming at the recent Arctic Race.
Speaking to Wielerflits, Terpstra said: "I'm super happy to be able to ride a final again - It's been a while since I was able to do that. That's the most beautiful thing there is. It's what I live for, and I enjoyed it. I had that kick again today and I'm happy with that."
Sagan is bringing riders Daniel Oss, Maciej Bodnar, Juraj Sagan and Erik Baska across from Bora-Hansgrohe, as well as multiple staff members, as the team tries to step up to the UCI WorldTour.
Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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