42 Facts About Romain Bardet

1.

Romain Bardet has worn the Young rider classification jersey, and won the Mountains classification jersey in 2019 as well as the overall Combativity Award in 2015.

2.

Romain Bardet distinguished himself in that year's Tour of Turkey especially in the 3rd stage, which was a mountain affair, where he attacked relentlessly to finally take fifth place.

3.

Romain Bardet finished 4th overall at the Volta a Catalunya and rode his first Criterium du Dauphine where he finished 5th overall.

4.

Romain Bardet climbed to 3rd place overall at the end of the second week, and even had a short stint in the white jersey.

5.

Romain Bardet gained a minute on the technical descent, then climbed up to the ski resort of Pra-Loup to win the stage solo, 36 seconds ahead of second-placed Tejay van Garderen.

6.

Romain Bardet went on to finish 6th overall at the race.

7.

At the Tour de France, Romain Bardet lost time in the crosswinds in the Netherlands and the team time trial in the first week.

8.

However, the pair were caught and overtaken by Steve Cummings on the short descent to the finish at Mende Aerodrome, and Romain Bardet finished third in the stage.

9.

On 23 July 2015, after a solo breakaway, Romain Bardet won Stage 18, a mountain stage for his first Tour de France stage victory.

10.

Romain Bardet finished in ninth place in the final general classification and won the combativity award of the Tour.

11.

In February 2016, Romain Bardet repeatedly attacked Vincenzo Nibali during Stage 4 of the Tour of Oman and ultimately finished the stage in second position, 9 seconds behind him.

12.

Romain Bardet finished the Tour of Oman second overall, 15 seconds behind Nibali.

13.

Romain Bardet finished second overall in the Criterium du Dauphine final general classification, 12 seconds behind Froome.

14.

Romain Bardet escaped the yellow jersey group on the lower slopes of Mont Blanc with 10 kilometres to go.

15.

Romain Bardet caught the breakaway survivor Rui Costa with 7 kilometres to go, dropped him on the steepest pitches of the final climb with 3.2 kilometres remaining and won the stage by 23 seconds over second-placed Joaquim Rodriguez; ultimately, he was the only Frenchman to win a stage in the 2016 Tour de France.

16.

Romain Bardet finished the Tour in second position in the final general classification, 4:05 behind Chris Froome, becoming the sixth Frenchman to finish in the top three in the final general classification over the previous 30 editions; the other five were Pinot and Jean-Christophe Peraud, Richard Virenque, Laurent Fignon and Jean-Francois Bernard.

17.

Romain Bardet was selected to represent France at the Summer Olympics in the individual road race, finishing 24th.

18.

Romain Bardet won stage 12 of the Tour de France, with an acceleration near the finishing line in Peyragudes in the French Pyrenees, going clear with less than 500 metres to go to take his third stage win in as many years.

19.

Romain Bardet struggled throughout the penultimate stage, a 22.5-kilometre individual time trial, that started and finished in Marseille; he finished in 52nd position, 2 minutes 3 seconds behind its winner Maciej Bodnar.

20.

Romain Bardet dropped from second to third in the general classification going into the final stage, with a one-second lead over fourth-placed Mikel Landa.

21.

Romain Bardet managed to hold on to his advantage, completing the podium behind Chris Froome and Rigoberto Uran.

22.

Romain Bardet missed the Vuelta a Andalucia after injuring his right arm in a domestic accident.

23.

Romain Bardet broke away with the world cyclocross champion Wout van Aert and the pair led the race for much of the final 40 kilometres before Tiesj Benoot attacked from a chasing group to catch and then drop them in the final sector of dirt roads.

24.

Benoot soloed to victory by 39 seconds ahead of Romain Bardet, who dropped van Aert in the final kilometre.

25.

When riding the Criterium du Dauphine, Romain Bardet never challenged for the overall win and only entered the top 3 inside the last two days.

26.

When he arrived at the start of the Tour de France, Romain Bardet had a troubled first week with mechanicals and punctures.

27.

Romain Bardet lost time on multiple occasions during the first week and was almost two minutes behind when they started the 10th stage.

28.

On stage 12 to Alpe d'Huez, Romain Bardet attacked and rode away from the other contenders.

29.

Romain Bardet was later joined by Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Tom Dumoulin, but decided to test the contenders with numerous accelerations.

30.

Romain Bardet ended the stage in 3rd place and rose to 6th place in the general classification.

31.

Valverde started the sprint with almost 200 metres to the finish line but Romain Bardet never looked like a serious challenge and had to settle with 2nd place.

32.

Romain Bardet made his first start at the Giro d'Italia, sharing team leadership with Jai Hindley, the 2020 runner-up.

33.

Romain Bardet made his way up the general classification, moving into the top ten overall after stage 14, finishing at the Monte Zoncolan.

34.

Romain Bardet finished second to Egan Bernal on stage 16, and moved up to fifth place overall on the penultimate stage, following a fourth-place stage finish.

35.

Romain Bardet rode into the leader's jersey at the Vuelta a Burgos, a preparation race for the Vuelta a Espana.

36.

Romain Bardet held a 45-second lead over Mikel Landa heading into the final stage, but he lost the race lead to Landa after cracking in the final 3 kilometres of the stage; he ultimately finished sixth overall, and won the mountains classification.

37.

On stage 5 of the Vuelta a Espana, Romain Bardet crashed and lost over twelve minutes; he lost a further thirteen minutes the following day, removing him from overall contention.

38.

Romain Bardet then rode solo to the summit finish at Pico Villuercas to claim the stage win, 44 seconds ahead of Jesus Herrada.

39.

Romain Bardet held the mountains classification for four days, before the lead passed to his teammate Michael Storer.

40.

Romain Bardet had a strong start to the 2022 Giro d'Italia.

41.

Romain Bardet rose as high as 4th place near the end of the second week, being only +0:02 behind Richard Carapaz and Joao Almeida and +0:06 ahead of eventual winner Jai Hindley.

42.

Romain Bardet started the 2022 Tour de France in a similar manner, but this was a bit more surprising as it contained the absolute best competition the sport has to offer.