Peter Sagan to skip Tour of Flanders after Classics struggles

Peter Sagan is to miss the Tour of Flanders due to his struggles to find form this Classics season.

The 2016 winner will not be at the start in Antwerp on Sunday due to his inability to help his teammate Anthony Turgis in the final of the race, L'Equipe reported.

His TotalEnergies team said that tests would be performed on him to discover the cause of his lack of physical ability in 2022, and that he would instead race the Circuit de la Sarthe ahead of the Amstel Gold Race and Paris-Roubaix.

The Slovakian was already not due to race Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday, and has returned home. 

Sagan tested positive for Covid for a second time in January and missed a key block of pre-season training, which has impacted his start to the season. He did not finish Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday, while his less experienced teammate Dries van Gestel finished third.

He finished 68th in the E3 Saxo Bank Classic last week, and also failed to make an impact at Milan-San Remo over a week ago. He will be replaced in the TotalEnergies line up by Geoffrey Soupe.

Sagan's best result this season was fourth on the second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, though he abandoned the race ahead of the following stage after falling ill with a stomach bug. The three-time world champion then also finished fifth at Milano-Torino ahead of San Remo.

He joined TotalEnergies over the winter after five years with Bora-Hansgrohe, during which time he won Paris-Roubaix and Gent-Wevelgem. It has been a different sight this season, seeing the rider who always present in the lead groups at the classics struggling to hold on.

Turgis, Sagan's teammate, has looked in good form so far this Spring, however, finishing second at San Remo and being present in the key move at E3. He is expected to lead the team on Sunday.