Romain Bardet: "The Giro is a race that offers more opportunities for attackers"

Romain Bardet is entering the Giro d'Italia as one of the pre-race favourites, after winning the recent Tour of the Alps in a surprising display of power by Team DSM in the current season.

Talking to reporters ahead of the big goal of his season, Bardet explains that his preparation for the race has been close to ideal: “It was super good to win Tour of the Alps, an important race because we went straight after a good block of training, to build confidence ahead of the Giro.”

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“We are targeting the GC as a team, but we are not worried about a specific place, but just to do things as well as possible. Everything is in place. We cannot wait to start. The Giro is the best race that matches my skillset, we know the Tour de France is very controlled and it’s not so easy to shine. The Giro is a race that offers more opportunities for attackers, for a more wide-open race," he added.

Sure enough, after leaving AG2R Citroën Team, he has not returned to the Tour de France, having finished seventh at the Giro and getting a stage win in the Vuelta a España last season. Bardet has been specifically fond of racing in Italy, and that matches perfectly with the ambitions he carried into 2022 where he seeks to improve on his 2022 performance.

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He too, acknowledges the harshness of the opening week, however Bardet is keen that it's in the final week that the race will be decided. "Honestly I wouldn’t say they are the only two tough finishes, but for sure the final week will be the decision week. Blockhaus looks hard, Etna is on the first week of the race. For me I’ve completed 10 grand tours but I can’t remember a start of the grand tour being so hard," he said.

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