"We raced aggressively like we had planned" - Romain Bardet animated but loses time on stage 3 of the Vuelta a Espana

Team DSM-Firmenich were animated throughout stage 3 of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana, towards the front for most of day. Sadly for Romain Bardet, he wasn't able to reward them with a stage win.

“Today we raced aggressively like we had planned," the Frenchman said in a post-stage interview with his team's official website after coming home in 19th place, 31 seconds down on stage winner Remco Evenepoel. "The guys did a great job and I was able to try to go clear on the penultimate climb. Unfortunately it didn’t work out."

Even more disappointingly, it wasn't just a case of not having the legs either. Bardet was also put to the sword by a late mechanical. "I refocused on the final but a mechanical with one and a half kilometres to go held me back from the front group," he laments. "We are looking forward to the sprint finish tomorrow.”

"The boys did a really good job at that and we were present and where we needed to be coming into the climbs," added coach, Phil West. " Romain was in contention but he had a small mechanical issue with around one kilometre to go which meant that a gap opened up in front of him and he wasn’t able to come back. It’s a little bit of a shame but overall I’m happy with how the guys rode today as a team and we’ll try again in the next days.”