CYCLISTS from Slovakia

Top 6

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Slovak Cyclists of all time. This list of famous Slovak Cyclists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Peter Sagan (1990 - )

With an HPI of 47.70, Peter Sagan is the most famous Slovak Cyclist.  His biography has been translated into 41 different languages on wikipedia.

Peter Sagan (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈpeter ˈsaɡan]; born 26 January 1990) is a Slovak professional cyclist, who competes in road bicycle racing for UCI Continental team Pierre Baguette Cycling. Sagan had a successful junior cyclo-cross and mountain bike racing career, winning the junior cross-country race at the 2008 UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships, before moving to road racing. Following 121 victories in road racing, Sagan is scheduled to return to mountain bike racing in 2024 with Specialized Factory Racing. Sagan is considered one of cycling's greatest talents, having earned many prestigious victories, including three consecutive World Championships, one European Championship, two Paris–Nice stages, seven Tirreno–Adriatico stages, one in the Tour de Romandie, three and the overall classification in the Tour de Pologne, a record seventeen stages and the overall in the Tour of California, and another fifteen in the Tour de Suisse. He has won a number of classics, including the Monument races Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders, three Gent–Wevelgem races and E3 Harelbeke, together with eighteen stages in Grand Tours: twelve at the Tour de France, four at the Vuelta a España, and two at the Giro d'Italia. After having become the first rider to win the points classification of the Tour de France on his first five attempts, he went on to win it a record seven times, in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019. Following his win at the 2017 UCI World Road Race Championships, Sagan wore the rainbow jersey for the duration of 2018 for an unprecedented third consecutive season.

2. Anton Tkáč (1951 - 2022)

With an HPI of 44.61, Anton Tkáč is the 2nd most famous Slovak Cyclist.  Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Anton Tkáč (30 March 1951 – 22 December 2022) was a Slovak track cyclist who claimed the gold medal for Czechoslovakia in the men's Match Sprint event at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada when in the final he defeated eight-time World Champion Frenchman Daniel Morelon. In this discipline he also won two World titles, in 1974 in Montreal and in 1978 in Munich, Germany.

3. Ján Svorada (1968 - )

With an HPI of 39.52, Ján Svorada is the 3rd most famous Slovak Cyclist.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Ján Svorada (born 28 August 1968 in Trenčín) is a retired Slovak and Czech road racing cyclist. He was born in Czechoslovakia; when that country split up in 1993, he raced for Slovakia until 1996, when he started racing for the Czech Republic. When Svorada won Stage 2 of the 1998 Tour de France he became a rarity in professional cycling because at that point he became a Tour de France stage winner who won at least one stage with two different nationalities. His first stage win at the Tour de France (Stage 7 in 1994) was obtained as a Slovak cyclist, and later he won also a stage in 1998 as a Czech rider. He competed for the Czech Republic at the 1996 Summer Olympics, the 2000 Summer Olympics, and the 2004 Summer Olympics.

4. Juraj Sagan (1988 - )

With an HPI of 34.95, Juraj Sagan is the 4th most famous Slovak Cyclist.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Juraj Sagan (born 23 December 1988 in Žilina) is a Slovak former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional from 2010 to 2022, for the Cannondale, Tinkoff, Bora–Hansgrohe and Team TotalEnergies teams. During his professional career, Sagan took four victories – all of which were at the Slovak National Road Race Championships, in 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020. Following his retirement, Sagan now works as a directeur sportif for UCI Continental team Pierre Baguette Cycling.

5. Peter Velits (1985 - )

With an HPI of 34.43, Peter Velits is the 5th most famous Slovak Cyclist.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Peter Velits (born 21 February 1985 in Bratislava) is a Slovakian former professional road racing cyclist. His career highlights included third place overall and a stage win at the 2010 Vuelta a España, the 2007 World Under-23 Road Race Championships gold and the 2012 Tour of Oman overall victory. Velits was also known as strong time-trialist, winning three consecutive team time trials as a part of Omega Pharma–Quick-Step in 2012 and 2013 and riding on the BMC Racing Team in 2014 UCI Road World Championships. His twin brother, Martin Velits also competed professionally, having raced on the same teams every year until the end of the 2013 season. After two seasons with the team, Velits left Omega Pharma–Quick-Step at the end of the 2013 season to join the BMC Racing Team. He remained with the team until he retired at the end of the 2016 season.

6. Martin Velits (1985 - )

With an HPI of 30.56, Martin Velits is the 6th most famous Slovak Cyclist.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Martin Velits (born 21 February 1985 in Bratislava) is a Slovakian former road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2007 and 2017 for the Wiesenhof, Team Milram, HTC–Highroad and Quick-Step Floors teams. His twin brother, Peter Velits, also competed as a professional cyclist. In October 2017, one year after his brother's retirement, Martin Velits announced that he would retire after competing in that year's inaugural Tour of Guangxi.