"The guys were amazing. They supported me and helped me with everything" - Romain Bardet recovers from early worries to finish alongside GC rivals on stage 10 of the Tour de France

The temperature was incredibly hot on stage 10 of the 2023 Tour de France. For Team DSM-Firmenich's general classification ambition Romain Bardet it was eventually a day of relief after recovering from being dropped early on.

“It was a really fast start today. I felt good in the beginning and we wanted to try something. We were away in a dangerous group but the other GC teams brought it back," recaps the Frenchman to his team's official website post-stage. "I then had a few minutes where I paid the price for the tough start, and went into the red and that cost me, so I had to drop from the group."

Although the racing never truly calmed down, once the breakaway formed Bardet was successfully able to rejoin his general classification rivals. "The rest of the guys were amazing. They supported me and helped me with everything I needed, and worked really hard to close the gap," praised Bardet. "I’m super thankful for them. Once the gap was closed I managed to get through the day okay in the end.”

“Romain’s legs were really good at the start. He put some pressure on over the first climb and managed to pull clear a good group. When it’s this hot you can then pay for the efforts, especially with how hard the group were pulling, so once the group was caught, I think he then had a five minute period where he went into the red and cooked himself a bit," added Team DSM-Firmenich coach Matt Winston.

"When it pays off you’re in the front of the race all day and you make massive steps on the GC, so it was a little bit of a gamble," Winston continued. "He ended up in the second group, but you also see that some other guys who were attacking and then ended up in that group too. The team did a fantastic job to stay calm, keep him cool and bring Romain back to the peloton. In the end I think we came through the day okay. It could have been a really good day but then in a moment it could also have been a disaster, so the guys did really well together to get things under control.”