Cycling | Romain Bardet's last hurrah

People seek the affection of others. Stars feel this way just as much as ordinary mortals. Romain Bardet therefore chose a top-level race for his final appearance as a professional cyclist, one that takes him over his daily training hills and brings friends and neighbors along the route. "I haven't competed here since 2020, for various reasons. But it's my home race. And I wanted to say goodbye here," he told French media before the start.

Since then, he's been getting his daily bath in the crowd. For example, when he attempted a breakaway 20 kilometers from the finish on Monday of the second stage. "I've trained on that mountain, the Côte de Nonette, over the past 25 years. It was a fantastic opportunity," admitted Bardet. But he found no mercy among his fellow cyclists. The sprint teams brought the peloton back to him in time. Muscle man Jonathan Milan then resolutely pushed through. Bardet didn't take it personally, at least not outwardly. The following day, he was greeted with great cheers at the start of the third stage in his hometown of Brioude.

Legs no longer reach the front

The fact that the climbing specialist will finally be retiring from his racing gear in the middle of the season also has to do with the fact that he no longer expects great things from himself. "I didn't want to end the Tour de France with a performance in the middle of nowhere," he explained, justifying his decision to forgo any further races after the week-long Dauphiné. "Because, if I'm honest, I no longer have a realistic chance of success there either," he estimated.

So 2025 was only chosen as the half-season. Another motivation was to try the Giro d'Italia again. The former Tour de France runner-up's goal wasn't overall victory, but at least a stage win. The small Grand Tour triple, stage wins in all three major tours, was the coveted prize. But that didn't happen. The closest Bardet came to a win was on the 17th stage to Bormio. He covered more than 100 kilometers in the day's breakaway group and proved to be the smartest of the breakaway riders. But then the man in pink at the time, the Mexican Isaac Del Toro , caught him.

It was a striking image of a generational shift. The 21-year-old Del Toro can climb more than just long edges. He also has the explosiveness for sprints and is also good at time trials. Bardet, now 34 years old – and thus not even the oldest at the Dauphiné – that's Italy's veteran Alessandro De Marchi (39) – has only been good at one thing throughout his career: climbing fast and with sustained endurance. This brought him successes such as the 2019 Tour de France's mountains jersey and the podium finish in Paris in 2016. But above all, his talent led to inflated expectations among his fellow countrymen that he would finally end the dry spell following the last French Tour victory. That was in 1985. Bardet wasn't even born back then.

The yellow jersey as the final highlight

The athlete bore this burden. The expectations of the Grande Nation also prevented him from turning his attention to the Giro at the peak of his performance. Only a switch from his French racing team AG2R to DSM, which was then licensed in Germany (now registered in the Netherlands as Picnic Post-NL), gave him this freedom. But younger, more explosive riders were already at the start, such as Egan Bernal, who won in Bardet's Giro debut, and Simon Yates , who finished third back then and took home the pink jersey this year. And then, of course, there is Tadej Pogačar, who has outdone Bardet in pretty much every race since 2020. The Frenchman has rarely been able to turn the tables. His greatest satisfaction was probably the stage win at the 2024 Tour de France, which also brought him the so-desired but previously never-worn yellow jersey.

Now at the Dauphiné, Bardet has only low expectations of himself. "The Giro is still in my bones," he admitted – and was already growing into the role of commentator and analyst, which would only be logical after the end of his career. "It's nice that the favorites for the Tour de France are all here. I don't think we have to worry about Pogačar's form . It's more important for Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard, who have fewer races under their belts. Both want to see if they are at a similar level to Pogačar," he said. But he isn't giving the challengers much hope. "I think Pogačar will dominate the race in the long climbs," he said, looking ahead to the upcoming mountain weekend of the Dauphiné as well as the Tour de France in July.