Romain Bardet had won on three occasions at the Tour de France, finished twice on the podium and won big races throughout his career. But none likely came close to the emotions and triumph felt today on stage 1 of the Tour. After announcing his retirement and that this would be his final ever Tour, the French veteran finally managed to pull on the yellow jersey after winning a dramatic stage.
“It’s crazy what happened here today, you have unexpected moments in your career and this was one of them”, Bardet said in a post-race interview. “I started this Tour without pressure because I’m not aiming for a classification. I’m completely myself again and that makes a difference. I saw that many riders were suffering, so I decided to attack. Frank then brought me to the front, he’s a great talent.” Great form for the DSM rider on the first day of the Grand Boucle. As UAE Team Emirates stopped pacing hard in the peloton and Visma took over, the Frenchman took the opportunity to launch an attack with 50 kilometers to go. This would prove to be the perfect strategy.
He bridged across to Frank van den Broek from the breakaway and the duo powered through together in incredible fashion. They maintained the large gap created on the climbs and in the flat run-in to Rimini they had enough left in the legs to hold off the fast approaching peloton led by Team Visma | Lease a Bike, Lidl-Trek and EF Education-EasyPost. They crossed the line together with 5 seconds over the group, but taking the victory they worked so hard for.
Half the victory was due to van den Broek's fantastic work for the Frenchman. “The way he rode on the flat at the end was phenomenal," Bardet commented. "The conditions weren’t great, the wind was against us. We were riding 46 to 47 kilometres per hour the whole time. This is an unthinkable scenario that nevertheless became reality. I followed my instinct by attacking at a certain moment. I have to conclude from that that when I attack, I’m racing from my heart and my racing instinct works out well.”
Twice on the podium of the Tour, he never managed to win in the Sky-ruled years. In the finale of his career, the 33-year old has shown once more why he is one of the sport's most popular riders. “Since the beginning of my cycling career, the yellow jersey has always haunted me. I was often close in the rankings and came close to the yellow jersey a few times, but it was never meant to be.” The day has finally come, at the least expected moment.
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