Dream career ending for Romain Bardet as he gets "to decide where I race and when and how I want to stop"

Romain Bardet has spent many years in pro cycling and will be retiring within month and a half at the Criterium du Dauphiné. He will be racing the Giro d'Italia, his final Grand Tour, with ambitions, but is happy looking back at a career where he has achieved a lot.

"I feel I've achieved everything I could in the Tour, especially after wearing the yellow jersey last year. I have some really nice memories from the Tour; they're the highlights of my career, so it's a special race for me," Bardet said in an interview with Cyclingnews. 

Bardet didn't want to end his career at the Tour just for the sake of participating, and so the Criterium du Dauphiné was chosen as his final week in the peloton, close to home. "I'm happy the 2024 Tour was my last. Now I've let it go. It's time to make room for other riders on the team and let some new energy in."

A rider who has been second at the Tour de France, World Championships, Liège-Bastogne-Liège... Bardet is someone who has been close to absolute glory on many occasions, but often his proximity to victories is what had him become so popular. A very aggressive rider, part of a traditional French team, he was always a headliner at the Tour de France.

Although he is no longer obtaining results like he did in the 2010's, the 2024 season did bring a stage win and yellow jersey at the Tour de France's opening stage, an absolute highlight. "It's a choice to be here. No one asked me to still be here. It's a privilege to be in this team, to decide where I race and when and how I want to stop".

Things are completely different than when he turned professional, and it's something he can feel a lot. "When I was a neo pro, everything was less serious. We didn't care about being totally aero, we didn't care about nutrition. We just enjoyed riding our bikes, going full gas, getting back home empty and making a lot of mistakes. We improvised, and we had a lot of fun. At the end of the day, it was all an experience".

Bardet always raced for the AG2R team, and in recent years the Picnic PostNL structure, but was never part of one of the top teams in the sport, where he could've perhaps achieved more with better support. However this is not something he regrets or would've done differently. "It could have been interesting to see what I could have achieved, but I have no regrets".

"I felt good and was always happy in the teams I rode for," he makes it clear. "I built strong relationships with people; I was also appreciated for the person that I am, and not treated like a number. I like to build real relationships with people and go for the long term, to really build something special together. I think I always did that".