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| - Cycling superstar Peter Sagan will race the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, but will skip the majority of the one-day classics this season, he told a press conference on Tuesday. The Bora-hansgrohe leader said an eighth green points jersey at the Tour was the key to his season, while respecting a promise to race the Giro just 13 days later was important to him as a man. "Yes, it's green and pink," Sagan confirmed when asked if his main season came down to the Tour and Giro. "I promised them (the Giro) before the date changed, and I really want to respect that promise," added the 30-year-old Slovak. The Tour runs from August 29 to September 20, with the Giro embarking October 3. "It's the Tour then the Giro, if the world championships are in Switzerland in between that will be too hard for me and I'll skip it." The former three-time world champion said he may change his mind on that if the location of the race is moved away from the mountains, which is a possibility. "You cannot have everything in this world, sometimes you have to make hard decisions," Sagan said. He confirmed his first competitive race would be the Strade Bianchi classic in Italy on August 1. He also hinted his main one-day racing target would be to win the Milan-San Remo on August 8. "The Strade, I'm going as part of my preparation, If I can try something I will. I'll be really ready for Milan." Speaking via a Zoom conference call with lush mountains from Bora's Austrian training camp in the background Sagan was relaxed and slim. The program means he will skip the Belgian classics and also the French mudfest Paris-Roubaix, which Sagan won in 2018 and which takes place on thea last day of the Giro. "I didn't enjoy lockdown, but I haven't been eating sweets. I'm on a diet," he joked. Sagan is the highest earning cyclist in the peloton at five million US dollars per year, topping a recent list in French daily L'Equipe above Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas. bur/dmc/nr
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