Even though Peter Sagan still fails to claim his career’s first monument, he is rightfully considered a rider with simply unlimited potential to excel on the arena of one-day races. However, the Cannondale manager claims that, with proper motivation and approach to training, the 24-year old Slovak can turn into a grand tour contender in two or three seasons.

“Of course, it’s up to him and how much desire he has to change focus to the Tour de France,” team manager Roberto Amadio told VeloNews. “It’s a bit like Brad Wiggins, but in reverse!”

Forced to face a huge amount of pressure every time he lines up at the cycling monument, young Sagan still didn’t manage to add any of the most coveted one-day races to his palmares, but podium finishes in both Milano-Sanremo and Ronde van Vlaanderen last season and victories in classics like Gent-Wavelgem of E3 Harelbeke are respectable enough for the 24-year old.

The Cannondale manager claims that after several more, eventually successful attempts to take the spoils in monuments, Sagan could shift his specialty to stage racing with great perspectives on being equally effective as in one-day events.

Amadio acknowledged, however, that such transition would take particular time and require a great desire from the rider himself, as he will be forced to change his training approach and significantly lose weight.

“In the future, he can aim for stage races,” Amadio said. “He goes strongly in time trials and on climbs. With training, he can win a Tirreno-Adriatico or Paris-Nice, start from there and move ahead.”

“He can aim for the Tour de France, for sure, but we have to start from the bottom like we did years ago when he started in the team,” Amadio said. “We are not going to aim for the Tour de France first. It’d be Tirreno-Adriatico or Paris-Nice and then the Tour de France.”

The former Cannondale trainer Paolo Slongo, currently working in Astana, agreed with Amadio’s assessment, pointing out to some similarities between Sagan and Lance Armstrong.

“My personal bet is that, with the proper maturation, weight loss, he’ll become a grand-tour rider,” Slongo told Cycling Weekly.

“Like [Lance] Armstrong, who began his career as a bigger rider, a little brash, who no one gave much faith. He has no limits in the one-day races and I’m betting on the grand tours as well.”