Bardet: It's a miracle I'm still in the Tour de France
16 July 2018 12:05
For Romain Bardet, it really was a Sunday in Hell at the Tour de France. The AG2R La Mondiale leader was shaking his head well before the end of the stage, and once across the sanctuary of the finish line, he fell to the floor and sat slumped against the roadside barriers, his face covered in dirt. He wouldn't have looked out of place in the middle of the famous Roubaix velodrome – a matter of metres away – on the second Sunday of April. The puppet masters pulling the strings of fortune took little pity on the great French hope on the highly anticipated cobbled stage of the 2018 Tour de France but, somehow, Bardet came through unscathed. Three punctures and tens of kilometres spent desperately chasing the front of the race, and only seven seconds conceded; he called it a miracle. "I wanted to take the race on but I punctured three times and spent most of my day behind," said a rueful Bardet once he'd picked himself up off the ground.ADVERTISEMENT "I never punctured once when we were training on the pavé, and today I punctured three times." The problems started early, with Bardet suffering his first puncture on the first of the 15 cobbled sectors. He had to change bikes twice before he rejoined the peloton. The second puncture came on sector 9 from Auchy to Bersée with 50km to go, and this time the situation was more critical, with the race in full swing. Oliver Naesen and Silvan Dillier proceeded to slog their guts out to bring Bardet back to the front of the race, but it took 25 kilometres and considerable effort. The trouble seemed to be over, but bad luck struck for a third time on the final sector, inside the final 10km. The gap had grown to 40 seconds by the time Bardet got going again but, once again with Naesen and Gallopin in front of him – and joined by the Movistar band similarly rescuing Mikel Landa after his carsh – Bardet managed to close the gap and finish just seven seconds down on the rest of his yellow-jersey rivals. Disappointment
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