Romain Bardet crosses the line of stage 7 in tears: "It's stupid to fall like that"

This Giro d'Italia is the final Grand Tour of Romain Bardet's rich professional career. And so, the 33-year-old Frenchman came to the race with a wish to enjoy the three weeks and hopefully win a stage or play a role in the final GC one last time. However now it's unclear if he'll be able to continue in face of consequences of his stage 7 crash.

"I think it was David who fell right in front of me. I didn't really understand what happened, he apologized, but anyway, like 90% of the time, there's terrible tension in the peloton. It creates gaps, and it's stupid to fall like that. I hit my knee badly, so I'm looking forward to putting some ice on it. I hope it's nothing too serious," Bardet told Eurosport at the finish.

"I hope it's just a knock. But I don't really know... It's true that I feel some discomfort in my kneecap, something that bothers me. I really hope it's just the shock and that it will be better in a few days. Yes, a little... It's true that there are very few moments when you can really be relaxed and confident. Everyone absolutely wants to be in front, but just to defend their position, not to attack. It creates a lot of nervousness, and inevitably, that leads to mistakes."

But he still took a moment to praise the performance of his young teammate Max Poole, who was 9th on top of the hard climb and thus moves up to 6th in the GC. "Max had a great stage, that's good. But in a Grand Tour, everything has to be aligned for it to work. Today, that wasn't the case. Yesterday, we slipped through the net, today not. That's how it is. We're not fatalistic, but we have to deal with it. It's only the beginning."