ANALYSIS | Farewell Romain Bardet: What was the greatest moment of the Frenchman's career?

The final stage of the 2025 Critérium du Dauphiné marked the end of a race, but also the end of an era. As the peloton lined up for the last time in this year’s edition, they also gathered to honour Romain Bardet, one of France’s most cherished riders, who called time on his professional road racing career after more than a decade in the sport.

It was a fitting farewell. Bardet, 34, was given a guard of honour at the start by his Team Picninc PostNL teammates and the wider peloton. And on the final climb, rather than fighting for position, he sat up, drifted to the back, and soaked in the applause from fans lining the road. Riding alongside teammate and close friend Chris Hamilton, he crested the final summit of his career with a smile and a wave.

“I’ve been preparing and then racing for a while in this last period since before the Giro, as I’ve been having a lot of fun,” Bardet said afterwards in a team press release. “Seeing everything and everyone at the side of the road today; it’s a magnificent finish to the race. It was hard not to let emotion get the better of me too.”

Though the racing was hard and fast, Bardet still found the space to reflect. “There was great emotion at the start but honestly it was a really hard pace during the stage. I’m happy to have been able to end my career in a place I know well; the setting is magnificent in the middle of the mountains. I’m very happy to finish with all my friends, and we get to ride down the mountain together one last time.”

For those who have followed Bardet’s career, the quiet dignity of his farewell was no surprise. He has always carried himself with grace, a rider who blended attacking flair with honesty and humility.

Bardet turned professional in 2012 with AG2R La Mondiale, and within two years had already made his mark. His breakthrough came at the Tour de France in 2014, where he finished sixth overall, climbing with the best and showing his class in the Alps. But it was the next two editions that defined him in the eyes of the French public.

In 2016, Bardet finished second overall at the Tour, behind only Chris Froome. He won Stage 19 to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc in the rain with a bold solo attack, one of the great mountain raids of the decade. A year later, he was third behind Froome and Rigoberto Urán, this time winning Stage 12 atop Peyragudes with a devastating uphill finish.

These Tour podiums captured the imagination of a country still searching for its first Tour winner since Bernard Hinault in 1985. Bardet, with his elegant climbing style and cerebral personality, became the face of French cycling, admired not only for his results, but for how he raced.

His Tour tally finishes with four stage wins, two podiums, and six top 10 overall finishes, including seventh place in 2022 and 2023. He also won the King of the Mountains jersey during the 2019 edition, a race lit up by French compatriots Thibaut Pinot and Julian Alaphilippe. But numbers only tell part of the story.

Bardet’s success wasn’t limited to his home Grand Tour. In 2018, he finished second at the World Championships in Innsbruck, Austria, behind Alejandro Valverde. Then, he added a Grand Tour stage win at the Vuelta a España in 2021, when he surged clear on Stage 14 to Pico Villuercas. It was his first major win in several years and marked a rebirth of sorts after joining DSM following his long tenure at AG2R.

He also won stages at the Critérium du Dauphiné and Tour de l’Ain, and finished in the top 10 of the Giro on two separate occasions. In 2025, he nearly completed his set of grand tour stage victories, only to be cruelly denied by Isaac del Toro at the Giro. Across more than a decade, he built a reputation as one of the peloton’s most versatile and respected riders.

We cannot complete a Romain Bardet farewell article without talking about stage 1 of the 2024 Tour de France.

On the first stage of his final Tour, Bardet and teammate Frank den Broek held off the chasing peloton to hang on by five seconds to take a beautiful, and emotional, victory. And with it, at last, was the yellow jersey that Bardet had craved for so long.

Yes, he would lose the jersey a day later, but Bardet did not care. He had finally donned the yellow jersey, and he has openly said since that this was the greatest moment of his career.

What made Bardet different was not just how he raced, but how he carried himself. In an increasingly data-driven sport, he remained an old soul, more intuitive than programmed. He read books, spoke in interviews with reflection and depth, and never shied away from speaking his mind on difficult subjects, including concussion protocols and mental health in sport.

He was often seen as the last romantic in a world of marginal gains. That persona, made him a rider others wanted to follow, even when the wins became less frequent.

Now, Bardet transitions away from the WorldTour, but not away from the bike. He plans to compete in gravel racing, a format that suits his love of the outdoors and of riding for its own sake. It’s an apt next step for someone who always seemed more at peace on the road than in the spotlight.

As Bardet said farewell atop the final climb in the Dauphiné, the moment was not grand or ceremonial, but it was deeply human. He didn’t get the Tour de France title many hoped for. But Romain Bardet leaves cycling with something harder to define, and arguably more valuable: the respect of his peers, the love of his fans, and a career that always stayed true to the rider he wanted to be.