Is Peter Sagan planning more fireworks? You decide ...

We’re not sure how famous Guy Fawkes may be in Slovakia – but that’s the person who immediately came to mind when we saw this picture of Peter Sagan, whose explosive turn of pace brought him a second successive world championship victory on Sunday, rocking up for tonight’s World Cycling Gala in Abu Dhabi.

I think this is appropriate for the @UCI_cycling Gala pic.twitter.com/yTO9A8YZog

— Peter Sagan (@petosagan) October 18, 2016

It’s a few weeks early for Bonfire Night admittedly, but we can’t help wondering whether Sagan, whose own brand of fireworks have lit up many a race, may have been inspired by his visit to York in the 2014 Tour de France Tour de France?

Stage 2 of the Grand Depart began in the North Yorkshire city, with the peloton passing within yards of the reputed birthplace of the Catholic conspirator, the building in the shadow of York Minster now called the Guy Fawkes Inn.

In the south of England, Bonfire Night is a big thing in Sussex – with the Edenbridge Bonfire Society in 2012 burning an effigy of Lance Armstrong, freshly stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

Perhaps the inspiration for the outfit sported by Sagan – accompanied to this evening’s event by his wife, Katarina – was rather more contemporary, however?

The picture of the man the Wall Street Journal earlier this year dubbed The Rock Star of Cycling had one road.cc team member immediately thinking of former Libertines frontman Pete Doherty. Though given the beard and hair, the rest of us are sticking with Fawkes.

Here’s another picture of Mr and Mrs Sagan in all their finery ahead of this evening’s shindig.

Good occasion for elegance.. #UCICyclingGala @petosagan pic.twitter.com/OAK7mv6o7z

— Luca Papini (@LucaPapini) October 18, 2016

12 months ago after winning the rainbow jersey for the first time in Richmond, Virginia, Sagan caused a bit of a sartorial stir when he was pictured in his new kit wearing white shorts, a big no-no for many purists – who were no doubt relieved then, when it turned out he was racing in black shorts.