What a day on the bike that was 🤯 Superb ride from @romainbardet to take 🥈 at the finish. You can be proud of that ride, Romain! #KeepChallenging #LaVuelta23
"He is a legend, just like Merckx" - Romain Bardet helpless against Remco Evenepoel on brutal Belagua stage
CyclingSunday, 10 September 2023 at 10:33
Romain Bardet has been chasing stage wins at the Vuelta a Espana and today he was close once again. After Javalambre where he finished third, today in Belagua he rode to second place, but could do nothing against Romain Bardet.
“It was a really good day for me. But yes, I was on the road with a legend. He did eighty percent of the work. It was really terrible in his wheel. I have had pain and cramps. He is a legend, just like Merckx," Bardet said in an interview with Eurosport. The Frenchman joined the winning breakaway of the day and the winning attack together with the Belgian at the top of the first climb of the day.
Bardet played his cards right. Clearly on a good day, making it into all the right moves, but he found himself alone with Remco Evenepoel in the final 90 kilometers of the stage. “I appreciate him enormously. We talked, yes. Today we said to each other: we will just ride together until the finish," the Team DSM-Firmenich rider said. That was the plan, but then on the final climb fatigue too kthe best of him.
“He completely imposed his pace on me. I'm really completely empty," Bardet describes, having cracked in the final climb with no response to Evenepoel's consistent pace. "I was so close to the limit, even though I still felt good. He was really much better today. After every bend I had to sprint to his wheel. It's so aero that I felt the wind in the wheel, but yes. That's Remco. I gave it my all." Bardet will likely continue to hunt breakaways in search of another win for the Dutch team, eyeing the mountains of the final week.
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