Triple cycling road race world champion Peter Sagan requires heart surgery which could endanger his bid to qualify for July’s Paris Olympics mountain bike race.
The 34-year-old underwent a first heart operation recently.
Now, in a post on Instagram, Sagan told his 1.9 million followers that he has had another mishap.
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“While I was training on the rocky trails in Marseille, my heart hit a few bumps,” he wrote.
But the Slovakian rider said it’s “nothing to worry about”.
“You could say that my heart needs a pit stop,” he added.
“I will undergo surgery next week and thanks to my friend, sports cardiologist Dr Roberto Corsetti, I am sure I will be back in the saddle very soon.”
Sagan ended his road race career last year, winning three straight world titles (2015-2017), 12 Tour de France stages and also stages at the other two grand tours, the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana.
He has competed in mountain bike before, including at the 2016 Olympics.
– With AAP