Sagan taking nothing for granted as he aims for sixth consecutive green jersey

Peter Sagan has insisted he is taking nothing for granted as he targets a record-equalling sixth consecutive green jersey in the Tour de France.

The reigning world champion has the opportunity to match Erik Zabel, who won the Tour's points classification every year between 1996 and 2001.And the Slovakian is odds-on favourite to do so on a route which seems tailor-made for his talents, with plenty of likely sprint finishes and a number of rolling stages too.

Sagan held court at a free-wheeling Bora-Hansgrohe team press conference in which the combination of his sharp wit and broken English produced plenty of laughs.

Asked if he would ever get bored of pursuing green, Sagan said: "We will see. I will try to do my best this year to get another one, and then next year another one, and after that maybe I'm bored."

The 27-year-old then added: "It's a very hard Tour de France, with crazy competition, every day you have to be concentrated. It's not for sure I'll be here in the green. To take green is a very hard thing and you have to fight for that from the first day until the last one."

Although Sagan does not often beat the elite sprinters head-to-head, it is his consistency in hoovering up second places and intermediate sprints which has seen him dominate the points classification since he won it on his Tour debut in 2012.

Asked to name his rivals for green, Sagan shrugged.

"The sprinters," he said. "Also some of the non-sprinters. I don't know how the race is going to be going. After the first week we can see.

"From the start everybody has a chance. There is a lot of competition, a lot of riders. You can crash, you can have an injury. Maybe you do some bad sprints and the situation is different.

"Everybody is strong for sure in the Tour de France and you have to be focused all the time."

But Sagan soon tired of questions about how the race might unfold.

"Why are you always asking me about the future?" he said. "I don't know. I try to do my best. I am not hungry about everything but for sure I want to do my best."