Even though Cannondale’s Peter Sagan certainly lives up to high expectations as a biggest favorite to go away with the green jersey as he leads firmly in the points classification and become the first rider since 1930 to record top five results in all stages of the Tour de France opening week, the Italian team claims that the Slovakian rider is still unsatisfied with obtained results.

 

Posting top five results in all seven stages of the opening week, including finishing runner-up in stages 1,3 and 7, and very successfully competing in the intermediate sprints to strengthen his lead in points classification sounds no less than respectable, but the 24-year old Slovak managed to win a stage during the first week of competition before going away with a green jersey in last two editions of the Tour de France. However, both Sagan and his Cannondale team admit that the talented rider lacked a little bit of something extra to finish things off this time around, closely watched by his rivals.

 

“He’s good, we’ve shown that,” sports director, Stefano Zanatta told VeloNews. “It’s not since 1930 that a rider has finished in the top five in the first seven stages. That shows something’s going well, but he’s not making the difference, and it’s not easy for him to win.”

 

Cannondale’s sports director, not only forced to handle Sagan’s disappointments but an uncertainty around the future of Italian squad, revealed that highly motivated Slovakian rider experiences hard times missing out on a victories one time after another.

 

“It’s not great after he doesn’t win, that first half hour…” Zanatta continued. “If he made a big mistake or we weren’t able to close on an escape — like in the Arenberg stage when Kwiatkowski flatted and a gap opened — then after a stage like that, it’s not good. A half-hour later, though, after a shower and a chat, he’s OK. He knows that these things happen.”

 

“Maybe he has too much desire to win, maybe he doesn’t have the teammates with him up until the end … It could be that,” Zanatta said.

 

“For sure, if you get a group of 20 riders and you have two up front then it’s easier to manage the race and help Peter stay calm. If you’re on your own with 30 riders, who are racing against you, then it becomes difficult. We brought the best team that we could bring here, so we just have to accept it.”

 

A very likely Sagan’s victory in the Tour de France points classification might be the last major achievement of the Italian WorldTour squad, as the Cannondale bike manufacturer is expected to connect their future as a sponsor at the Garmin-Sharp outfit from 2015 season and their biggest stars run out of contracts with the end of 2014.

 

According to some rumors Sagan has already signed a deal with Tinkoff-Saxo and Ivan Basso is expected to follow him as a luxury domestique for Rafał Majka.

 

“We don’t have a confirmation of continuing or that we need to find another team,” Zanatta added. “We just have to keep doing our work as normal.”