Peter Sagan Back to Training After Double Heart Surgery
Peter Sagan announced his retirement from road racing last year, and since then, things have been anything but smooth sailing. Sagan, 34, decided to switch gears to mountain biking, aiming to make it to the Paris Olympics. But with several setbacks, he’s running out of time to reach his goal.
GCN reported that “Sagan was diagnosed with anomalous tachycardia, a cardiac arrhythmia, in late February and underwent an ablation procedure. However, after initially returning to training, he was forced to stop and undergo a second operation the week of March 18.”
This week, Sagan announced via social media that he was back at training. In a video, donning the new-look Specialized Factory Racing kit, he said, “I just wanted to make a little update about me – I’m going to go for the first time on the bicycle after the surgery I had two weeks ago. Let’s go.”
In the caption, he wrote, “Quick update everybody! It’s time to go in the saddle for my first training ride after my surgery a couple of weeks ago. Once again, many thanks for all the messages of support I received from all over the world. You guys rock!!”
Sagan has remained positive and upbeat throughout his ordeal. He was first diagnosed with the irregular heartbeat issue after a mountain bike race in February when his heart rate was recorded at over 200 bpm.
Sagan’s representatives “described the ablation procedure, designed to correct arrhythmias in the heart, as ‘routine’ and said he’d be back training within weeks and back racing in Marseille on March 17. However, it was while training on that course ahead of that weekend’s racing that more anomalies were detected.”
In an earlier social media post, Sagan gave his doctors’ report: “The cardiac recording device (implanted in Peter Sagan on February 23) detected a supraventricular tachycardia on Saturday, March 16, during a training ride in Marseille.
“Dr. Roberto Corsetti, the Sports Cardiologist who looks after Peter, decided to have a new electrophysiological cardiac assessment performed. Yesterday, March 20, at the Torrette Lancisi University Hospital in Ancona, a transcatheter ablation for the supraventricular tachycardia was performed by Professor Antonio Dello Russo, in the presence of Dr. Corsetti.”
After the two surgeries, Sagan is once again back to training and still has an Olympic dream. But with the summer months looming, will he have enough time? If anyone can make it happen, it’s the Slovak Terminator.
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