Tirreno-Adriatico, the race to the two seas, the Italian counterpart of Paris-Nice, is already over for Romain Bardet (DSM-Post NL).
The 33-year-old Frenchman considered it more prudent to leave the Italian race before the 6th stage, the day after a delicate day on Friday.
The Frenchman, 2nd in the Tour in 2016 and 3rd in 2017, initially lost contact with the group of favorites, then he fell on the descent of the San Giacomo pass.
However, Romain Bardet managed to reach the finish, with the help of a teammate, Chris Hamilton, but more than twenty minutes behind Jonas Vingegaard (Visma), winner of the stage.
This Saturday morning, on social networks, Bardet wanted to reassure everyone and thank his team.
After his crash yesterday and after passing initial assessment, @romainbardet rode easy to the finish together with @ChrisHamo_.
As per our concussion protocol, during intermittent checks yesterday evening, Romain began to display some mild signs of concussion.
Obviously, this… pic.twitter.com/dvlylMfAtP
— Team dsm-firmenich PostNL (@dsmfirmpostnl) March 9, 2024
“Blow(s) to the head.
Difficult to leave the race due to an error on my part, apart from the concussion I am lucky to do so well at this speed.
Many thanks @dsmfirmpostnl for the diligence and care,” he wrote.
For its part, the Frenchman's Dutch team published a statement on the incident on X: “In accordance with our concussion protocol, during intermittent checks last night, Romain began to show slight signs of concussion.
Obviously, this means that he is DNS ('do not start') today at #TirrenoAdriatico and that a rest period will be observed while he fully recovers.
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This Saturday, a demanding day is offered to runners, with a series of climbs and descents, and a finish at the top of Monte Petrano (10.2 km at 7.9%).
Two days from the finish, Vingegaard, the Danish double winner of the Tour, has a 54″ lead in the general classification over the Spaniard Ayuso (UAE) and 1′20″ over the Australian Hindley (Bora).