20-year-old Peter Sagan, the unquestioned breakout success of 2010 so far, seems to have finally hit the wall. The young Slovakian Liquigas rider has had a season riders of any age would dream of with two stage wins at Paris-Nice, a stage at the Tour de Romandie, two more wins at the Tour of California, and a huge downpour of top 10's starting at the Tour Down Under all the way to Sunday's first stage at the Tour de Suisse.
After Stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse, however, the Slovak Steamroller looked to be in need of a break. The race started off in almost typical fashion: Sagan finished a fantastic 4th place in the opening time trial, only three seconds behind World time trial champion, Fabian Cancellara. The next day, Stage 2, was a completely different affair though - he inexplicably finished almost 11 minutes down in 158th place. Stage 3 was even worse - he didn't even take the start.
Unsurprisingly, the word from his Liquigas team was that Sagan is suffering from a "great deal of fatigue."
It is not known what his plans for the rest of the season are at this point, but there has been no official word as to whether he will or will not race the Tour de France. Dropping out of the Tour de Suisse could be an obvious sign that he really is spent from the first half of the season, or it could also be a preventative measure to give the all-arounder a little break before heading to Rotterdam for the Grand Depart on July 3rd.
Of course, conventional wisdom would hold that he wouldn't race the Tour considering his age and the brutal schedule he has raced so far. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time a very young, prodigally talented rider takes the start at the Tour de France, scores a stage win, then calls it a day when the going gets medieval in the mountains. You know, like Lance Armstrong.
In this case, however, it would seem unlikely considering that the Liquigas team will head to the Netherlands with the Maillot Jaune as the team's top goal and a possible chance at the mythical Giro/Tour Double. It would do the team leader(s) a great disservice for a rider like Sagan to only race the first ten days, when every teammate will be of the utmost importance in the crucial latter phase of the race.