Peter Sagan entrusted the UCI and race organizers with the safe resumption of the race, suggesting that riders need not fear contracting COVID-19 coronavirus during the peloton race as long as they are examined before the event and everyone respects health and safety protocols. [The UCI will release its medical protocols this week, and major race organizers and teams are also considering measures to protect riders, race caravans, and spectators.

Speaking to the media via conference call from the highlands of Solden, Austria, during the Bora-Hansgrohe training camp, Sagan agreed with race organizer RCS Sport to miss the cobbled classic scheduled for October and compete in the Giro d'Italia to honor his agreement with race organizer RCS Sport to miss the cobbled classic scheduled for October and compete in the Giro d'Italia.

He will return to racing in Strade Bianche and will ride the Milan-P Torino and Milan-San Remo in early August, as well as the Criterium du Dauphiné (August 12-16), before heading to Nice for the Tour de France on August 29. If the World Road Race Championships are held on a mountain course in Switzerland, he will miss the event and recover for the Giro d'Italia.

Sagan, who will ride 42 stages of the two Grand Tours in just 58 days due to a calendar change, did not rule out leaving the Giro d'Italia in the final week to compete in Paris-Roubaix on October 25.

Sagan spent the COVID-19 pandemic in Monaco and revealed that he kept a low profile, posting very little on social media to show respect for those suffering from the global crisis. After his Paris-Nice run, he was isolated from his son Marlon and ex-wife for three weeks and trained indoors until early May.

"It was definitely a strange situation. It was not a normal life. I was in contact with many people, so when I returned to Monaco, I was confined to my apartment for three weeks to avoid infecting my ex-wife and son. I took precautions, but fortunately I never felt sick or had any symptoms. I was not depressed, but I had no energy," Sagan said of his confinement.

Despite the obvious impact that COVID-19 had on the world, Sagan put his fears to rest when he returned to racing in Strade Bianche, trusting the authorities, race organizers, and the UCI.

Sagan rarely took a public position on important issues of governance in cycling and was not keen to enter the debate over whether the race should be held in some form of private or with a regulated crowd. While some experts have denied that the race could be revived without endangering the health of the riders or spectators, race organizers, particularly Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France, have refuted the idea of holding the race without spectators.

"It is not my decision to make. We have to accept the status quo. We have been cooped up in our homes long enough. All the restaurants are open, the soccer season and other sports have started, so why not cycling?" he said, revealing his personal desire to return to racing.

"Surely, we are not in a stadium. They have to make some rules about what we can do, about the instructions we have to give to protect ourselves and others. If they have to close the roads for spectators, they have to think about that. I have to think about performing well.

"Certainly, there will be instructions that we need to test before the race. Even at this first training camp, everyone had both a nasal exam and a blood test to see if they were positive or negative and if they were infected with the coronavirus. Same thing at the race. If they all tested negative, why should I be scared?