On February 27, in Ghent, Belgium, at the start of the Het Nieuwsblad, his first race of the season, Romain Bardet appeared in front of the AG2R-Citroën bus to greet all the members of the team one by one.
His only team in nine years of career before he opted for DSM (ex: Sunweb).
Vincent Lavenu, the team boss, would have liked to keep him, but, at 30, the French rider wanted elsewhere.
Silent but deep.
Apparently, the Brivadois has just changed his outfit, swapping blue and white for black while sober for the German formation.
A jersey that perfectly matches the discreet character of a cyclist weighing every public statement like his food.
At Bardet, scientific and ultra-rational at heart, substance has always taken precedence over appearance.
In appearance, therefore, Bardet has remained the same, still training on his roads in Auvergne which he knows by heart.
But in reality, he accomplished a huge revolution this winter.
An astonishing letting go
At AG2R, Bardet had settled down, by his own admission, in moral comfort by applying the same working methods to the point of wear and tear. Those which had allowed him in particular to climb two years in a row on the podium of the Tour de France in 2016 and 2017. But in 2018 and 2019, he too often let go in the final explanations in the mountains between leaders. In 2020, a violent concussion during the Puy Mary stage had forced him to retire.
The problem was, Bardet ended up falling victim to Bardet.
Become dependent on his own feelings and a character pushing him not to always save himself in training.
However, he recognized that he sometimes needed not to master everything.
Remembering that he had won one of his best victories, the 19th stage of the Tour 2016, in the rain, forgetting the safety instructions.
The native of Brioude also suffers from rarely raising his arms.
His last success dates back to… February 24, 2018, on the Classic de l'Ardèche.
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Bardet, by signing with DSM, opted for an astonishing letting go of which we no longer believed him capable.
He who, before, only did things on condition of understanding them, accepted the DSM method which gives results (four stage successes on the last Tour, for example).
“For a very long time, his driving force was to want to understand everything and fit everything into what he was doing,” explains Philippe Gardent, the physical trainer for the La Rochelle club, who took care of Bardet for four years.
He needed this.
His body couldn't do if the head hadn't approved before.
From now on, he is not a 100% producer and director and sometimes accepts being only an actor.
It is sometimes consulted, sometimes not.
"
For Gardent, Bardet could not have made this choice earlier: “It would not have been possible a few years ago.
It is because for a long time he needed to master everything, that today, precisely, he accepts a different mode of operation.
"
The reunion with Nicolas Roche
If he wants to shine on the big laps, Bardet knows he must progress on the time trials.
And at AG2R, it was far from having the best technology in the world ...
By signing to DSM, Bardet also privileged the sense of friendship, because he found the Franco-Irish Nicolas Roche, who had been his leader in 2012. The two men are linked to the point of having invested in "Service Course" ”, A“ bike shop café ”located in old Nice. "He is not a friend on the bike, he is above all, and first of all, a friend in life," admits Nicolas Roche. I wouldn't say he came to this team for me, but my presence was a little extra. We had long dreamed of fighting together for the win and that I ride for him. Frankly, he is very well installed in the team. He integrated very quickly. Romain speaks perfect English and that made things easier. "
For Philippe Bardet, his father, “Romain is delighted with the change.
He had worked really well with Jean-Baptiste Quiclet, his trainer at AG2R and it's just a change of method.
At DSM, there are several coaches who work together and Romain trusts them.
It is in phase with its program ”
On the Giro to aim for a "very good general classification"
So far, Bardet has raced five races without putting excessive pressure on the bib. He wants to see in his eighth and ninth places on Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of the Alps a rise in power before the Giro, which he is about to discover. The Tour of Italy, “Romain had dreamed of it for a long time, confirms his father. AG2R did not prevent him from running it because, in 2020, he should have competed with his former team. Before the Covid upsets the calendar. I passed on my love for the pink jersey to him and this race has always made him dream. He feels at ease in the Italian races and their excitement. "
“There is a reassuring side to relying on a working method that has already borne fruit,” confides the runner Benjamin Olivier, one of his relatives.
Romain needed this change.
And what reassures him about his start to the season is that he feels very fresh, without the feeling of having dug into his physical reserves.
And that is really encouraging for the Giro.
"
Bardet never sets a very specific goal, at least publicly, but dreams of adding a third grand tour podium to his collection.
"He is going to the Giro to aim for a very good general classification," confirms Nicolas Roche.
But, after all, it is also perhaps the best way to make a stage victory possible.
I know he really wants this race.
Romain still has great things to live with us.
"
