We’ve lost count of the number of stories we’ve seen in the mainstream press* headlined “cycling is the new golf” – but it turns out that for road world champion Peter Sagan, golf is the new cycling.

The Tinkoff rider posted a picture to Twitter yesterday with the caption “my new passion,” showing him mid-swing about to send a golf ball into orbit … or perhaps miss it altogether.

The backdrop is Lake Tahoe, where Sagan and his team mates are preparing for the Tour of California, which starts on Sunday.

Still, at least the Slovakian rider finally seems to have worked out that the appropriate tool to set a that little white ball in motion is a golf club – last time we saw him on the firway, he and chum Vittorio Brumotti were using their bikes to try and stick it in the hole.

* And, erm, here on road.cc … guilty as charged

> Video: Cycling IS the new golf – Peter Sagan practises putting … with his bike