Romain Bardet happy to have taught new Picnic PostNL leader at Giro d'Italia - "He'll be one of the big names in the peloton"

Romain Bardet has finished the final Grand Tour of his career and will be racing for the last time as a professional cyclist next week at the Criterium du Dauphiné. The Frenchman spent the Giro d'Italia chasing stage wins but also supporting Max Poole, to whom he passes on the Team Picnic PostNL Grand Tour leader status to.

"Max is still super young and he gave the GC a chance for the first time. That's super tough in three weeks and the result isn't even that important. It's about the mindset he had for three weeks," Bardet told In de Leiderstrui.

"Even when he was dropped, he showed fighting spirit and kept going until the finish. He's going to make big steps and in the future he'll be one of the big names in the peloton". The Briton rode to an 11th place overall, but this was largely affected by a disastrous stage 9 in the gravel where he lost over 5 minutes to Isaac del Toro.

Otherwise, the 22-year old managed a great Grand Tour on his first time aiming for GC, and gradually rose throughout the final half of the race almost into the Top10. In the final week specially, he was consistent and even on the attack against the main GC favourites, revealing a great amount of recovery abilities besides the obvious climbing talent.

Alongside the stage win for Casper van Uden, it can be called a rather successful Giro for the Dutch team. "It's a good feeling to be here in Rome. A lot can happen in such a Grand Tour, so I'm happy that I made it. For the team it was a successful Giro, with two young leaders in Casper and Max and they did a super good job. That offers perspective for the future, where we've spent three great weeks together. Something really came out of this group".

The team has also brought in important points in it's fight for survival at World Tour level. Now, Bardet and Poole may team up together at the Dauphiné. The Briton was equal in complementing his teammate: "It's very special that I was able to be part of Romain's last Giro. I've spent a lot of time with him this year. He's such a good guy, on and off the bike. Everyone knows him and knows what he's achieved on the bike, so it's very special that I've spent all that time with him".