Cycling, Peter Sagan sentenced for driving while intoxicated: three months in prison with probation, but he will be in the Tour

The last one Tour de France Of Peter Sagan definitely starts off wrong. The three-time world champion Slovakian rider was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment suspended for driving under the influence. On the morning of last May 12, Sagan had been stopped in Montecarlo, where he lives, driving a scooter with a blood alcohol content of 1.46 mg/l in blood: the limit is 0.5. The president of the court also focused on the morning time of the check in his file: it was 11:35 when the three-time world champion crossed paths with the Principality’s police. Police noted risky, even dangerous behavior by a driver in his motor vehicle. The pilot was trying to park in a space reserved for two wheels. The agents approach and very quickly notice the signs of the scooter driver’s intoxication” , explained the magistrate, “therefore the rule to observe is to blow into the breathalyzer. The officials’ vague suspicions were becoming a certainty. Immediately, the pilot was taken to the Public Security premises”. Sagan, through his attorney, explained that he spent the night in nightclubs and other late-night bars before going to bed around 3 in the morning. He had an appointment about four hours later with a friend but he was still drunk.

At the end of the trial Sagan, absent from the courtroom for reasons related to his job as a runner, was thus sentenced to three months’ imprisonment (suspended sentence) and three months’ suspension of his licence. However, he will be at the start of his 12th Tour de France on Saturday 1 July with the TotalEnergies jersey. At 33 he has already opted for retirement at the end of the year: he will devote himself to competitions mountain bikes with the goal of competing in the Paris 2024 Games. In his career Sagan won 121 races, including 12 Tour stages, 7 consecutive green jerseys, a Flanders and a Roubaixas well as three rainbow jerseys, the only one in history to have won three World Cups in a row (from 2015 to 2017).