- published: 15 Jan 2007
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Robbie McEwen (born 24 June 1972 in Brisbane, Queensland) is an Australian former professional road bicycle racer. He last rode for Orica-GreenEDGE on the UCI World Tour, and is now a technical advisor for the team. As a triple winner of the Tour de France's green jersey sprinters' classification, at his peak he was considered one of the fastest sprinters in the world.
A former junior Australian BMX champion, McEwen switched to road racing in 1990 at 18. He was first selected for the Australian national road team in 1994. McEwen lives in Australia with his Belgian wife Angélique Pattyn, his son Ewan, and his daughters Elena and Claudia. In 2011 he published an autobiography, One Way Road.
He retired after riding the 2012 Tour of California.
McEwen started road cycling in 1992 at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra under head coach Heiko Salzwedel. The first signs of his sprinting prowess on the international stage were at the "Peace Race", winning three stages for the Australian National team.
Peter Sagan (born January 26, 1990 in Žilina) is a Slovak professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team Liquigas-Cannondale. Sagan had a successful junior mountain bike racing career, winning the Junior World Championship in 2008, before moving to road racing.
At the age of 22 Sagan is considered to be one of cycling's most promising talents, having won two stages at Paris–Nice, one at the Tour de Romandie, two and the overall classification at the Tour de Pologne, a record eight at the Tour of California, two at the Tour de Suisse, three at the Vuelta a España as well as the overall classification and three stages of the Giro di Sardegna.
Sagan is the youngest child among three brothers and a sister. He was brought up by his sister as his parents spent most of the day taking care of a small grocery shop they own in his hometown. His brother Juraj Sagan is a cyclist with Liquigas-Cannondale.
Sagan started to ride bikes at the age of nine when he joined Cyklistický spolok Žilina, a small local club in his home town. Throughout his junior age Sagan rode both mountain bikes and road bikes, and was well known for his unconventional style to ride in tennis shoes and t-shirts, drinking just pure water. Sagan drew a significant attention when he appeared at the Slovak Cup with a bicycle borrowed off his sister after he had mistakenly sold his own and the one from Velosprint sponsor was delayed. Riding the supermarket bike with poor brakes and limited gear, he won the race.