With just over a week to go until the UCI Road World Championships begin in Innsbruck, Peter Sagan could be in the final few days of his three-year streak in the rainbow jersey. Since the Slovak first held the road world title in 2015, he has become cycling`s most bankable and most blockbuster star. He`s the sport`s rock star who always delivers, whether he`s winning races or not. Procycling met with Sagan this summer, in one of the increasingly rare exclusive interviews the 28-year-old gives, in the middle of a season where he won a long-awaited Paris-Roubaix title and a record-equalling sixth green jersey at the Tour de France. But beneath all the jokes, the bike trickery and the videos posted, Sagan is becoming ever more elusive almost in equal trajectory to his increasing fame. As well as discussing his Bora-Hansgrohe team, which was set up almost entirely around him, and his love of America, Sagan gives a glimpse to Procycling`s deputy editor Sam Dansie, of the pressure he lives under in the spotlight.ADVERTISEMENT `Now with all the travelling and races I don`t even know where I am,` he says. `I stay in a hotel and I don`t know if it`s Belgium or America or France. It`s too much.` From the current superstar in cycling, to the sport`s next big thing, Egan Bernal, hotly tipped as the Grand Tour winner of the future after his MVP performance for Team Sky at the Tour de France in July. Still only 21, the young Colombian climber is in his first season in the WorldTour but has already won the Colombia Oro y Paz and Tour of California GCs, finished third in the Tour of Romandie and came within a stage of finishing runner-up overall at the Tour of Catalonia before he crashed out. Yet it was Bernal`s role as mountain domestique to Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome in France which really sent the young protégé`s profile sky-high. Alasdair Fotheringham went to meet Bernal, to hear about his development and find out how successful he could be.
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