Despite taking yesteray’s E3 Harelbeke, Peter Sagan still fins himself under immense pressure to deliver a “Big Classics” win for Cannondale.

Sagan is now the hot favourite to win next Sunday’s Tour of Flanders but he avoided the question very well after his victory.

“It’s important, yes, but I also have a future,” Sagan said. “Yes, I want to do well. It’s still good when I win, or when I finish second. The most important for me is to do the maximum in the race, then I am happy.”

Sagan’s record in the Classics last year was excellent:

2nd Strade Bianche

2nd Milan-Sanremo

2nd E3 Harelbeke

1st Gent Wevelgem

2nd Tour of Flanders

1st GP Montreal (not a Classic but a prestigious one day race)

He was 10th in this year’s Sanremo that took place in horrendous conditions but he still woke up the day after with a huge article in La Gazzetta dello Sport questioning his ability to win a “Big Race”. The E3 win will go a little way to shut his critics up but they will only be satisfied when a Monument is delivered.

“I don’t read newspapers,” Sagan said Friday when asked about growing media pressure. “The journalists do his job, I do mine. It’s nice to win today, but the most important thing was to make a test of the form,” Sagan said. “I could see that I am strong for these races.”

Cannondale made signings in the winter to help Sagan such as Oscar Gatto and Marco Marcato, but they are continuing to downplay the pressure on the 24-year-old Slovak’s shoulders.

“These coming days are very important for Peter and for Cannondale. He is on top form, and the team is very strong,” Cannondale general manager Roberto Amadio told VeloNews. “We hope to make a big victory in these big races.”

“It’s hard to make too many conclusions from what happened Sunday. It was an incredible race, with cold, rain,” Amadio said. “What’s important is that Peter is in good condition now.”

Sagan’s teammate Ted King weighed in on the situation:

“We have very high hopes with a guy like that on the team. He’s a tremendous guy to work for,” King said. “He’s fascinating, because he has a very light attitude. He has this youthful energy, he’s 24, but he has a precision focus on the day. Over the course of the past three years, he’s made enormous progression, so to take a monument would be bigger than big.”

But Amadio insists that it is easy to motivate Sagan despite the fact that the Slovakian has openly indicated that he does not have an obsession with winning Paris-Roubaix, which he will do this year for the first time since 2011, or the Tour of Flanders.

When asked about speculation over the future of his Italian-registered, American-backed team, Amadio laughed, and said, “speculation is what is going on.”

Tinkoff-Saxo and the team being set up by Fernando Alonso are both rumored to be his biggest suitors but Amadio insists that Sagan leaving Cannondale is not a certainty.

“The team is happy with Peter, and Peter is very happy with the team, but money is also very important,” Amadio said. “We are in discussions.”

Amadio has spoke with both Sagan and his agent Giovanni Lombardi and has hinted that a decision will be reached as early as April 27, the day of Liege-Bastogne-Liege. A win in Flanders, Roubaix or both could well impact whether Sagan stays or goes.