Peter Sagan has criticised some of the younger generation of pro riders, saying the way they no longer stopped for a natural break and would "piss" anywhere in the bunch, even hitting other riders, annoyed him.
Sagan, perhaps showing the end of his career is not far away, hankered back to the days when riders like Fabian Cancellara dominated and was a rider you could respect. But now young riders were acting as if they could do what they wanted in the bunch, including taking a toilet break anywhere, even if it meant urinating on others in the peloton.
“Fabian Cancellara used to say a lot of things about me, very provocative, especially for the classics,” Sagan said in an interview with Het Nieuwsblad. “That always made me laugh, because it just meant he was getting really nervous about me. When the journalists came to me with his statements, I always replied: ‘Fabian is my idol. I can't say anything bad about him’.
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“Back then it was the older riders who talked a lot, now the younger generation does too. Then I think: okay, you are strong, a ‘champ’, whatever. But you are younger. The younger generation lacks that respect. You see, you feel that. In the past you had the unwritten laws in the race. Now, forget it. There is total anarchy there.
“I first noticed it when as a leader in a stage race I stopped to pee. They kept on attacking, while that used to be a moment of rest in the peloton. The bathroom break just doesn't exist anymore. I saw it again in the Haut Var. You used to have the fixed time to stop to pee together.
“Now everyone is peeing from their bicycles. I then ask: Is that normal? I understand if you ride the final of say the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix. But at a dead-end in the race? You don't lose anything by stopping for a while.
“They don't even bother going to the edge of the road. No names, but they just piss in the middle of the pack. Everyone pees on everyone. Nasty. And if you say something about it, you're arrogant, so to speak, because you can't decide what someone else should do.”
