Peter Sagan (opens in new tab) admitted he missed a great opportunity to win a record fourth title in the World Championship (opens in new tab) road race in Yorkshire on Sunday.

Sagan had won three consecutive world championships from 2015 to 2017, and his victory in Yorkshire would have made him the all-time record holder, surpassing Eddy Merckx, Alfred Binda, Rick van Steenbergen, and Oscar Freire.

While many of the pre-race favorites for the win struggled with the cold and wet conditions, Sagan was feeling strong and physical. However, he did not react when Mathieu Van der Pol and Matteo Trentin launched their first major attack with 33 km to go.

Although Van der Pol unexpectedly exploded with 12km to go, Trentin and the rest of the lead group were able to escape to the finish, and Mats Pedersen (Denmark) took the world title.

Sagan attacked from the chase group with 4km to go, but lost the rainbow jersey by 1:20, finishing in 5th place, 43 seconds behind Mads Pedersen.

"I'm not disappointed. I'm not disappointed, but I missed my chance to be in the lead group. But I missed my chance to get into the lead group. I could have been in the lead group, but I thought it was going to be a sprint race," Sagan told Cycling News in Harrogate.

"I took my chances, but in the end it turned out differently. I wanted to compare myself with the other riders. I just missed the chance to get in front of them."

Sagan said.

Initially, there seemed to be plenty of firepower in the 30-man chase group, with four Belgians on Greg Van Avermaet and a Frenchman on Julien Alaphilippe. However, over the course of two laps of the 14-km Harrogate circuit, the gap to the five-man lead group grew wider and wider.

With one lap to go, the gap had widened to 48 seconds, and a few kilometers later the gap was 1:25, and any hope of the race returning to normal was gone.

"I was hoping for more countries to come out stronger, but I think the weather froze a lot of guys and they didn't finish," Sagan said.

"A lot of countries were weaker than normal. I think that's why the race went the way it did. But congrats on first place."

Asked if he had any regrets, he added, " You never know.