Re. Kittel and Quick-Step: he's only been signed for a very specialist role: winning flat stage races and some of the 1 day races that are flat and smooth. You'll never see him in a cobbled classic. So he fits into his spot without stepping on the toes of the cobbles guys (he probably hardly even sees those guys for large parts of the season). So I'm sure there would be no cross-over between Sagan & Kittel if they were in the same team. Gaviria is also in there and he's been given more than enough of his own opportunities without having to play support/lead out for Kittel. Anyway, Sagan can't really be called a sprinter. He does very well against them on his own terms, but it's a complete waste of his unique talents to try and keep forcing him into that role as Tinkoff have continued to do (and any other stage racing team would). And as he gets older, just like what happened to Boonen as he matured) he'll continue to lose that top end speed but gain more power-endurance and become even stronger in the truely hard races. Also, Classics racing may as well be a completely different sport to stage racing. In stage racing you can build a team around 1 star. But the most successful Classics teams like Quick-Step (and Domo Farm Frites and Mapei before it) know that to win these big races you need multiple options. You just cannot have all your eggs in 1 basket. How many times has Lotto NL Jumbo failed to win anything because their one option (Vanmarke) got a punture or crashed at a critical moment. Same with Trek: if Cancellara went down that was their race over. It's an accepted part of this type of racing that there are going to be casualties. There WILL be crashes and the big names are going to go down at some stage. And when riders go down in a race like Flanders or P-R there is no chance to stop and wait for them. They just get left behind and the team then focuses on supporting the next best option still on the road. The best teams are packed with multiple riders who can win the race. Each of them knows they can win the race but they also know who the no.1 leader is on the start line. But if he goes down they won't stop for him (and rightly so - there's just no way - the race would just leave them all behind). So in Quick-Step if Boonen goes down in P-R it's 'goodbye Tomeke' and on to the next person in line (Stybar, Terpstra, Vakoc, etc.). But more importntly for someone like Sagan, if you've got 2 or 3 of these potential winners from 1 team still there in the finale, now you've got options. You can launch early attacks by riders no.2 and no.3 to force the rivals to chase and burn themselves out, with no.1 (Sagan) just sitting comfortably in the wheels waiting for the end game to make their move. The rivals HAVE to chase because no.2 and no.3 (Terpstra or Stybar) are good enough to ride away on their own and win if given a gap. Keeping hitting them like that and they will crack. So as a collective the team becomes almost unbeatable in those situations. At the moment because he's on his own, in a small group going for the win, and with the chasers bearing down on them, he's been forced to pull because the others can just sit up and know they can wait for him because he's got no choice. They'd rather lose than bring him to the line. So he does all the work and they zip past at the end to snatch the win. And yet another 2nd place for Sagan. That's why I say Sagan would be most successful in a Classics team full of stars. It's the same environment that all the big winners have been most successful in the past, from Boonen, van Petegem and Musseuw to Van Looy, Merckx and De Vlaeminck. He NEEDS a super strong Classics squad (yes, that means with big names in there too) in order to win more races more easily.
