Before the start of the Giro this Saturday, Romain Bardet (DSM) spoke in particular about his feelings and his preparation for this Giro d’Italia, during an interview with L’Equipe.
This Saturday, Romain Bardet will discover the Giro at 30 years old. With already eight participation in the Tour de France and one in the Vuelta, the rider of the DSM team now hopes to shine in Italy. “The gaps are less crippling here than on the Tour, often we see spectacular climbs or also guys who collapse completely. On the Tour, sometimes it comes down to a hill climb, it’s really padlocked. There, we know that there are other elements that come into play. If I have this bit of success, and especially the intuition that is going well, that can help me have a very good race. I would have liked to have been on the Giro before in my career, but now I think that the main thing here is to have the desire and good legs, the rest will follow. I still have experience of Grand Tours, I have played the general almost every year since I was a neo-pro, it’s something that I know, that I master, knowing how to make the efforts over three weeks … “, Explained the French in particular, during an interview with L’Equipe.
“I am swinging a little in the unknown”
« We have decided not to do any reconnaissance, so I am swinging a little in the unknown, it is necessary to say what is. Of course, I know the area a bit, I’ve been to the Dolomites a few times, but I don’t know as well as the Alps or the Pyrenees, that’s obvious. When you arrive in a new team, there is a lot to assimilate, so we preferred to focus on that, we worked a lot in training. I don’t think it’s penalizing and I hope the hardness of the race and its unpredictability will suit me, Bardet also said. Before the third week, it will be necessary to go through the stone paths in Tuscany (11th stage), which will have the same role as the cobblestones on the Tour, perhaps with a greater physical dimension. On the cobbles, especially when you don’t have all the Roubaix specialists, if you don’t have a problem, you’re not going to get off the wheel. There, there will be climbs, so there will be both this technical side, driving, the chance not to have mechanical problems, punctures, and also the physical. It will be even more difficult and decisive, more revealing of the state of form of each one. “
