BARDET & PINOT: THE HOME CHALLENGE
It’s been 31 years since the last French Tour win. We look at the riders who might end that streak
The fact that the two top French stage racers of the moment both wanted to turn their backs on the Tour de France this year and focus instead on the Giro d’Italia is telling. Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet each had different reasons for wanting a new challenge, and in the end, only Pinot got his way. But neither case can be fully separated from France’s long wait for a successor to Bernard Hinault, the last home winner of the Tour. The expectation that has built up over those 32 years has been cited as a factor behind the slumps that followed Pinot’s precocious podium of 2014. But if his inclination towards riding in Italy was born of underachievement, it was, perhaps, the exact opposite for Bardet.
Second overall at last year’s Tour was a richly deserved result but, as Pierre Carrey wrote in the March edition of Procycling, it came, perverse as it may sound, almost too soon. Bardet is a fiercely ambitious individual with an insatiable appetite for progress. He is described as an ‘éternel insatisfait’, and the sudden leap had a somewhat unsettling effect. His unconsummated flirtation with the Giro has been read as a result of that ‘what now?’ complex, though the French Ag2r La Mondiale team decided it couldn’t be without its talisman for the most important month of the year.
“Honestly, if Romain finishes fifth, sixth, or even seventh place, his Tour won’t be a failure,” Julien Jurdie, Bardet’s directeur sportif says, repeating the message he has given the man himself. “We know he still has maturity to gain and physique to develop, so there won’t be any disappointment if he’s not on the podium. We speak about ambition, but it’s about being the best he can be – not necessarily putting a precise number on things.”
Becoming a more authoritative figure in week-long races was a key area of development highlighted by Bardet over the winter. The 2013 Tour de l’Ain remains the sole stage race victory on his palmarès and, since he won it on the final day, he has never worn a leader’s jersey in a race.
Yet this season has seen little progress on that front; if anything, there’s been a backwards step. There were top-10 finishes in Oman and Catalunya but a poor time trial was costly at País Vasco, while the nadir came in the form of disqualification from Paris-Nice on the first stage for illegal assistance while chasing back on. The incident caused not only embarrassment
but disruption to his carefully planned race programme. He made a heartfelt public apology, which restored him in the eyes of fans, but the missed race miles were not so easily replaced.
The Tour de Romandie was scrapped, meaning his last stage race before the Critérium du Dauphiné came in early April. Sixth in Liège-Bastogne-Liège was a decent result, but it was as much a chance to draw a line under a forgettable first portion of the season.
“We’ve said, ‘Another season begins at the start of May,’” says Jurdie, who recently accompanied Bardet and a group of teammates on a two-week altitude camp in the Sierra Nevada.
“Romain has re-set himself very well. The camp was a success and we saw that his condition is good. I know how Romain’s mind works, and when you see his application on and off the bike, there are no worries.”
The Dauphiné should provide concrete answers to the question – not least in the 23.5km time trial – but it’s hard to argue that a Bardet at the height of his powers wouldn’t thrive on this year’s Tour de France parcours. There have even been suggestions it was designed specifically with him in mind, with a paucity of time trialling and an even spread of mountains. Rather than a co-ordinated race built around a couple of predetermined flashpoints, it’s expected to reward initiative and improvisation, which are Bardet specialities.
“We know Romain is an audacious rider who uses the course and doesn’t hesitate to take the reins in a way few others do. We all looked at the route in Sierra Nevada, and we saw some very interesting stages,” says Jurdie, declining to reveal the bookmarked pages in his roadbook, but providing a hint.
“We all know the descending qualities he has, and there are a fair few finishes at the foots of mountains, so that could give Romain ideas to anticipate the summit of a col, to find himself at the front with one or a few riders, and eliminate others.”
While Bardet must endure the discipline, attention to detail and stress needed to produce a consistent three weeks, Pinot is likely to be a free man.
His Giro wasn’t an unmitigated success – a podium finish would have made that so – but his stage win nevertheless slotted straight in as a highlight of a career that was very much steadied over the course of those three weeks. He made repeated reference to how much he was enjoying the whole experience during the race. As a result, he is expected to approach the Tour with renewed vim, able to target stages at will and maybe try for the polka-dot jersey.
“His season is already a success and that will allow him to go into the Tour knowing that his whole season doesn’t rest on those three weeks,” Julien Pinot, Thibaut’s coach and brother, tells
Procycling. “He can race more freely.” While Ag2r are dependent on Bardet, FDJ were able to let Pinot turn his focus away from the Tour – if not skip it altogether – due to the presence of Arnaud Démare, who now has his turn on home turf after being sent to the Giro last year. The sprinter will be given an extensive support cast – “definitely more riders than ‘us’,” as Julien Pinot puts it – which is just one of the dampeners on any sneaking temptations of a GC challenge. The main one, of course, is managing the 33-day gap between the Giro and the Tour.
“We saw with [Alberto] Contador in 2015 how difficult it is. There are only four weeks, so there’s no chance of proper preparation, but the first two weeks will be all be about resting and recovering from the Giro,” says Julien Pinot.
The TT at the French nationals is likely to be the only pre-Tour outing as they opt for the ‘cool-off and re-build’ approach rather than trying to hold on to Giro form. “The first week of the Tour can serve as training for the rest of the race and the nice mountain stages in the second half.”
The Pyrenees, Massif Central, and Alps will all be visited in the second half but there’s the small complication of La Planche des Belles Filles, the summit finish that takes place a stone’s throw from Pinot’s home, Mélisey, on stage five.
“There’ll be no shortage of motivation there, but I think he’ll have a better chance later on,” says Julien Pinot, offering a recipe for success that marks a shift in tone from the past two years in its simplicity.
“Arriving in Paris with a stage win, going on the attack on multiple stages, having fun in the mountains – that would be a successful Tour.”