Bardet, who has no chance of winning the Tour, will surely make headlines in France
You already know that with Romain Bardet objectivity is not the rule of the house and this time, in the heat of the Tour, it will not be an exception either.
Just a few days before the Tour, we read that Bardet will be in the race.
For a few years now, the Frenchman has not been a contender for the throne that one day he discussed with Chris Froome himself.
In fact, I believe that he was never in a position to win the Tour, no matter how much “la France” wanted to see him succeed Hinault.
In 2016, he took second place in the final stretch with an attack in the rain that was one of the best of that edition.
The following year, he had Froome, he always had a shot, he had a great team, but he never worried the Englishman, to the point that Landa almost took the podium from him.
Those two options that Bardet had to climb the Parisian box are quickly summarized because since then he has never been in it again.
You can imagine the pressure that Bardet had to deal with during those honeymoon days.
France was then looking for a successor to the badger for more than thirty years, and great hopes were placed on Bardet and Pinot of returning the Tour to its host.
Now, as we approach the fortieth anniversary of the 1985 Tour, Bardet returns to France with renewed ideas.
He realized a long time ago that the Tour did not fit his mold, but he discovered that there was more room to shine.
He bet on the Giro, which has not gone well at all: in 2020 he wanted to run it but the pandemic changed the calendar, last year he was close to winning a stage, but we never saw him for the general classification and this time, he left the race when he was among those who would end up on the podium, he did so vomiting.
Then there are the classics, a little-disclosed option for Bardet who has been on the podium in Liege and Strade and even a silver medal in a world championship, which Valverde won.
As you can see, he has no shortage of records and this rider who once had a chance to win it, returns to the Tour with the idea, surely, of polishing his team’s scoreboard, a DSM that earns little, but when it does, it achieves it based on good collective work and a brilliant strategy.
Bardet in the Tour no longer counts as a potential winner -we would have liked to have seen where he would have gotten to two years ago- but that does not make him any less attractive to see how he knows how to reformulate himself and fight for other options that also enhance a sporting career.
After him and Pinot, I don’t see anyone in France capable of winning the Tour immediately.but that is not going to take away any of the enthusiasm of good old Romain, the same one who in 2015, after falling out of the fight for the podium, amazed us with the discovery of the Lacets de Montvernier and gave us a descent to remember.
Because this skinny, combed guy always comes back, he’s a treasure, one of those top class cyclists that we miss on this side of the Pyreneesa guy who also stars on covers because at the risk of an embankment he is able to forget about the race and help his partner get back on the road.
We are looking forward to seeing what the Tour has in store for him…
2024-06-29 16:47:35
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