"Doing nothing, just waiting for others to crack before you... No" - Romain Bardet admits he's done riding GC at Grand Tours
CyclingMonday, 03 June 2024 at 07:31
With Romain Bardet now having 16 Grand Tours in his legs, the latest of which saw him finish 9th at the 2024 Giro d'Italia, the Frenchman has revealed he is now completely done riding for general classification in the three-week races.
“The UAE train really crushed me on the last mountain stage, I really gave up," the 33-year-old, two-time podium finisher at the Tour de France reflects of his Giro d'Italia performance in conversation with L'Equipe. "Geraint Thomas, what he did again in the Giro (3rd at the age of 38 ed.), I am incapable of doing it. Do nothing in the Giro, zero initiative, just waiting for others to crack before you... No."
With a total of eight Grand Tour top-10s now on his palmares, Bardet somewhat understandably considers another relatively worthless. As such, the Frenchman is keen to change tact in future and opt a more stage hunting strategy. "Making a top 5 while following all the time while being on the verge of fainting, I feel like crap. I've done it too much: I've finished so many Grand Tours. the top 10 exhausted and without much satisfaction... A podium is different, but for another place, I prefer to burn my wings on one stage and try again to win one behind," he explains.
Bardet won't have to wait long for another crack at a Grand Tour, with the three-time Tour de France stage winner returning to his home Grand Tour next month. "The Tour is well laid out, the hard stages are seperated, that should give me the recovery time to be good on the days when I need it. I checked five, six stages. If everything goes well, I'll maybe have three opportunities to win," he previews. "For me, it's not a reward to go to the Tour, it's that we have something to do there. And I know it's still possible: when we see what Kwiatkowski, Woods, Wout Poels did last year... Physically, I'm also capable of it."
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- He wins the Vuelta because the best don't show up. With how he rides, he's better for the TdF but not good enough for who showsVeganpotter07-05-2025
- True, but unless Tadej or Jonas fall off their bike or get sick, no one is going to beat them. The 2014 Tour was decided by the Shark of Messina long before Contador or Froome were injured. I miss Nibali.awp07-05-2025
- Everyone thought Froome or Contador had the 2014 Tour locked up, and look what happened. Anything can occur in a race.itsent07-05-2025
- The handbags are already out aren't they? Let's see who pulls for who.Renz07-05-2025
- "I think they forgot last year, and when Jonas was injured," and I think you forgot 2023 L-B-L, when Tadej was injured and had to improvise a training without bike. Tadej only could riding a "normal" bike again only 2 weeks before the Tour. That TT he couldn't knowing well at all.
maria2024202407-05-2025 - It's unfortunate a rider of his caliber hasn't won the Tour de France and I can't fault him for trying, in fact, I respect it. But he never will win the Tour as long as Tadej and Jonas are in the peloton, and we might as well add Remco to that list as he is the youngest and seems to be coming up quickly behind Tadej and Jonas. I hope Primoz can capture another Giro and maybe another Vuelta before he calls it a day.awp07-05-2025
- "He breaks the conventions we once held", yeah, Tadej es disruptive, unique. Perhaps because he doesn't come from a family/country with tradition in cycling, so the "laws" of cycling were unknown to him and he was just looking/seeking to have fun. Traditions are beautiful but sometimes can be limiting.maria2024202407-05-2025
- I'd win so much money off Blythe on this one!bobo07-05-2025
- "The Giro d'Italia 2024 saw a strong increase in audience figures across RAI networks, especially on Rai2 and RaiSport HD. The race also experienced a significant boost in online engagement, with record numbers of website visitors, video views, and media articles. The event reached over 700 million viewers worldwide...." Sorry, but Pogacar is boring only for ... envious? ex-riders.maria2024202406-05-2025
- It's always the way in pro cycling - 1 rider wins and the rest,instead of working with each other to topple the better rider, they ride behind said rider collecting scraps that're left...
leedorney06-05-2025
Good choice of Bardet. Was not good enough also for podium in almost all Grand Tours he started. Going for stage wins, suits him better
Oh, and was that a subtle little pique he had at Geraint?
So funny but I’m sure he didn’t say farting.
Probably another Google AI translation shortcut that wasn’t proofread or someone would (should) have picked up the French colloquialism used for exploding.
Respect for the 16 GTs, no idea if that puts you near the top on the all-time list but I’m going to look that up if it exists.
Recently discovered Lucien Van Impe, he rode 21 GTs in 18 consecutive years, 12th in his first, 11th in his last and almost never out the top 10.
If you list all his positions, the only ones he didn’t attain up to 18th were 8, 10, 14, 15 and 17. In the TdF GC he had a win a 2nd, 3 3rd, 2 4th, a 5th, a 6th and a few others.
I say that merits a bit more respect than Adam Hansen who may have done the most consecutives at 20 but I don’t think he ever broke top 50. That kind of record also has to do with having luck not to crash or get sick.
Chozas? 26 plus one DNF
Typical Anglo bias on the internet, full of articles on most consecutive GTs, not one on most GTs so another stat that hard to find.
Meanwhile I discovered MC won 42 Giro stages and a Spaniard who never raced abroad won 39 at the Vuelta, but thanks to Cav almost beating Merckx, the internet is full, again, of articles on most stages at the TdF, never a mention of most stages at any GT, sigh.
Pro Cycling Stats have a list of 'Most starts in Grand Tours'. You can see the top 50