It was an incredible week of bicycle racing in Richmond, Virginia culminating in Peter Sagan storming to victory in the road World Championships.  Post race Sagan declared bicycling is a force for bringing the world closer together and said he was largely inspired by the refugee crisis.  My favorite image from the World Championship races is this one of the winner of the Women’s road race crossing the finish line unbelievingly.  Her expression is incredibly touching.

Elizabeth Armitstead winning Worlds, in the moment. Picture from cyclingnews.com

I blogged about Peter Sagan last November.  He’s right up there with Merckx, Lemond, Indurain.  The cycling legends.  Why?  You can’t exactly put your finger on it.  He’s showing us something new, ways of riding cycling has never seen before.  He’s so good at everything.  We all knew he could sprint, but then this year in the Tour of California he won the time trial and finished sixth on the difficult stage that concluded with an ascent up monstrous Mt. Baldy.  Sagan finishing 3rd in the sprint on stage 8 to secure a few bonus seconds that delivered overall victory for him and his team in the General Classification.   He excels at entertainment too.

To understand Sagan in context, you have to remember he’s not even a road bicyclist.  Sagan is a mountain biker.  He just happens to be good at the road, too.  If he can deliver on world peace like he can deliver in bicycle racing, I’ll be writing more about him.   He already has stated his intentions of bringing the world closer together through sport, and I believe he is going to do it.  Sagan is flamboyant and charismatic.  Great performers have those qualities plus talent, skill and determination.  They like to show off.  They like to share.  Show us peace.  Inspire good will.  Let the reign of bicycling bring peace, prosperity and health for generations.

The next generation at the Tour of Utah’s Kids Race

Credits:
I like to use my own photos for my blog posts but for this one, I needed some outside sources.   The first photo is from cyclingnews.com and the second one is from https://www.tourofutah.com/about/mike-and-the-bike