As if the challenge of winning the MTB race at the Olympics wasn't hard enough for Peter Sagan who hasn't raced the discipline in seven years he will have to do it from the very back of the grid.
Anybody who thinks world champion Peter Sagan will just rock up to the start-line for the mountain bike race at the Olympics tomorrow and do what he does on the road had better think again.
The Slovak superstar and five-time winner of the green jersey at the Tour de France is up against one of the strongest ever fields the race has ever assembled.
And though he’s a former junior world champion from 2008 he will start at the back of the grid. On his own.
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Yes, the complicated structure of the mountain bike race means that some riders are gridded based on their UCI ranking.
And because Sagan is ranked 900th in the world – because he never rides MTB races - he is in the seventh line back in a field of 50 riders.
The start-list above shows he has it all to do in a race that lasts around 90 minutes.
To win, he will have to beat France's Julien Absalon, Switzerland's Nino Schurter and gold medallist from 2012, Jaroslav Kulhavý (Czech Republic), amongst others.
But if anyone can, Sagan can...
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