World road champion Peter Sagan got married to fiancée Katarina Smolkova today – and the happy couple’s nuptials in the town of Dolny Kubin in their home country, Slovakia, didn’t pass unnoticed on social media.
The 25-year-old Tinkoff-Saxo rider, who this year won the green jersey at the Tour de France for the fourth year running before clinching the rainbow jersey in Richmond, Virginia, is a huge star in Slovakia.
The bride wore white and the groom wore … well, something that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a field marshal in Napoleon’s army or, especially given the coat he was wearing before the ceremony, Game of Thrones.
There’s a school of thought that it is traditional marriage attire for a Slovakian man, though a search on Google suggests otherwise.
Here’s a video of him arriving at the ceremony in a Trabant – green, to match those Tour de France points jerseys (the bride arrived in a white vintage Citroen) – then chopping a log, first with a hacksaw, then a chainsaw, a traditional touch that is supposed to demonstrate the groom’s willingness to help solve problems in married life.
And here are some pictures of the new Mr & Mrs Sagan after the ceremony.
@petosagan and @KateSmolkova congratulations. pic.twitter.com/MgGACZs9wU
— ♡ Cycling ♡ (@cannondalegirls) November 11, 2015
Oh, and if you want to see pictures of Peter Sagan, in his wedding outfit, on something that looks like a scaled down penny farthing 12 feet in the air while his bride scales a rope ladder below … well, here’s your chance. More pictures here. Oh, and lots more here.
I said I wouldn't look but WHAT is this?!?!?!?!?! pic.twitter.com/8XcHSqOcaw
— . (@fifi_bellamy) November 11, 2015
Best wishes to the newlyweds from all of us at road.cc.
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.