It is still unknown if Romain Bardet believes in signs. We know it Cartesian so we doubt it a little even if basically, Auvergne soon retired is much more romantic than it seemed long. The end approaching, Bardet shows his true face, the one he has long hidden behind the ever more calculated research of performance which made his pride if not completely writing his glory. This now completely abandoned facet, it is with a single hope that he tackles his last Giro, that of the last big thrill.
Let’s go back to our signs. It was in Italy that Romain Bardet (Picnic Postnl) experienced the most crazy emotion in his career last summer. The boot, he finds her a few months later, or rather he will find her because it is from Albania that he will start like the others for his last big tour.
Tirana like Rimini on Tour 2024?
From Durrës, a port city where ancient Rome has left traces, from where the 1st stage of the Tour of Italy will leave, you have to fold your eyes very, very strong to see Rimini beyond the Adriatic Sea more than 600 kilometers away. Rimini, Tirana, profiles that look alike and a more improbable idea that of seeing the French endorse the first yellow jersey of the Tour de France 2024.
Voeckler “not amazed” by Martinez: “Why do you think Bahrain took out the checkbook?”
Video credit: Eurosport
It is not his collection of leader jersey that Romain Bardet comes to complete in Italy, even if the pink carries in him enough prestige to attract any lover of cycling and his history. He who had missed the rainbow for much not much in 2018 has never really established an intimate relationship with them. Before the yellow jersey, there had been that of the Tour de Burgos 2021 and … that’s it. Winner of the Tour de l’Ain 2013 and the Tour des Alpes 2022, Auvergnat had overturned these two races on the last day.
Rarely, Bardet was totally in the light until the start of the Tour de France 2024. Yellow was ultimately well at the complexion but this mythical paletot was the consequence, not the objective. It was the victory that Bardet wanted Rimini, a consecration of a rocking operated in his head a few years ago but long to take shape in fact.
Everything for the 3rd week
Who among Wout Van Aert, Rafal Majka, Simon Clarke, Adam Yates or Romain Bardet will become the 112nd runner to complete his success trilogy on the big towers? Being 112nd, 113rd or even 116th, the future retiree does not care. He no longer has time to calculate because the story will stop in just over five weeks now.
Not much or almost in the start of the season of Bardet does not imagine with certainty that he will reach his last dream. His fall in Algarve’s turn ruined a lot of things and made him waste a lot of time. Bardet, who had to declare before his farewell to Paris-Nice, reassured himself a little in the Alps at the end of April (10th of the general) but so little …
Razzi-Astana, “It’s a sick thing!”
Video credit: Eurosport
In the absence of Tadej Pogacar, the Giro which arrives promises to be more open and therefore perhaps more conducive to the escaped, especially if Primoz Roglic, rarely stingy as a gift to the daring, came to take the controls. In 2024, already looking for a step success, Bardet had nevertheless involved in the fight with the best on certain stages (4th in the 15th, 7th of the 17th), proving that he still had a sacred level.
With these legs in the high mountains, he can believe it, especially since the opportunities will not miss. We will cite the 5th and 7th stages in the first week but it is the third that occupies all the thoughts of the one who has “only” eleven professional success. The chain of large passes remains what he prefers and where his qualities of pure climbers do wonders. After the dream that was the Tour de France 2024, it is hard to believe that Romain Bardet will not achieve this last objective but in cycling nothing is ever written and this unknown, the 34 -year -old French is ready to welcome him. More than ever.
