Cycling – the last hurray of the Romain Bardet

People are looking for other people’s affection. There are stars as well as ordinary mortals. For this reason, Romain Bardet chose a top race for his last appearance as a professional cyclist that leads over his daily training mountains and brings friends and neighbors on the track. “I haven’t started here since 2020, for various reasons. But it’s my home race. And I wanted to say goodbye here, ”he said French media before the start.

Since then he has picked up the bath in its quantity every day. For example, when he started an attempted escape on Monday on the second stage 20 kilometers before the finish. “On the mountain, the Côte de Nonette, I have been training again and again in the past 25 years. It was a great opportunity, «said Bartet. However, he did not find mercy among the colleagues. The Sprinter teams brought the peloton back to him in good time. Muscle man Jonathan Milan then prevailed. Bardet didn’t take it crooked, at least not to the outside. The next day he was happy to receive great jubilation at the start of the 3rd stage in his hometown of Briude.

Legs are no longer at the forefront

The fact that the climbing specialist will finally move out the racing clothing in the middle of the season also has to do with the fact that he himself no longer expects big deeds. “I didn’t want to end the Tour de France with a performance in anywhere,” he explained the waiver of all further races after the one -week Dauphiné. “Because if I’m honest, I no longer have a realistic chance there,” he estimated.

So in 2025 it was only chosen for the half season. There was also motivation to try again at the Giro d’Italia. Not the overall victory there was the goal of the previous overall turns of the Tour de France, but at least one stage win. The small Grand Tour Triple, stage wins on all three large tours, was the longed -for prey. Nothing came of it. The closest came to Bormio on the 17th stage. He spent more than 100 kilometers in the escape group of the day, he also proved to be the smartest of the outliers. But then the man at the time in Rosa, the Mexican Isaac del Toro, caught him.

It was the impressive picture of a generation change. The 21-year-old del Toro can not only climb on the long edges. He also has the explosiveness for sprints and is also good in time trial. Bardet, now 34 years old – and not even the oldest at the Dauphiné – this is Italy’s veteran Alessandro de Marchi (39) – only one thing was really good: persistently climbing quickly. This brought him success like the mountain jersey of the tour 2019 or the podium square in Paris 2016. But his talent, above all, led to excessive expectations of his compatriots to finally end the dry spell after the last French tour victory. That was 1985. Bardet was not even born at the time.

The yellow jersey as the last highlight

The athlete wore this load. The expectations of the Grande Nation also prevented that at the peak of his performance he was already turning to the Giro. Only a change from his French racing stable AG2R to the DSM, which was then licensed in Germany (now entered as a Picnic Post-NL in the Netherlands) gave him these freedom. But there were already the younger ones, also more explosively at the start, such as Egan Bernal, who won at Bardets Giro-Debüt, or Simon Yates, who finished third at the time and brought the pink jersey home this year. And then of course there is Tadej Pogačar, who brewed the cutting in almost every race since 2020. Rarely was the Frenchman turned the tables. For him, the greatest satisfaction was probably the stage victory at the Tour de France 2024, which also gave him the yellow jersey that was so longing, but has never been worn.

Now at the Dauphiné, Bardet has little expectations. “The giro is still in my bones,” he admitted – and grew into the role of the commentator and analysts, which would only be logical after end of career. “It’s nice that the favorites for the Tour de France are all here. I don’t think you have to worry about Pogačar’s shape. It is more important for Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard who have fewer races in their legs. Both want to see if they are at a similar level like Pogačar, «he said. However, he does not make much heirs to the challengers. “I think Pogačar will dominate the race on the long mountains,” he looked at the upcoming mountain weekend of the Dauphiné as well as the Tour de France in July.