Romain Bardet hadn’t reckoned with losing more than two minutes on the opening weekend of the Giro d’Italia, but he still must have come away from the first two stages with a sense of relief. It could have been much worse.
After placing second at Liège-Bastogne-Liège last month, Bardet arrived at this Giro among the favourites for a podium spot. When he fell ill midway through the opening stage, however, Bardet must have wondered if he would last the distance at all.
Illness had, after all, forced Bardet to abandon the 2022 Giro just when he looked poised to make a bid for overall victory. History risked repeating itself in Turin on Saturday, when the Frenchman was stricken by an intestinal ailment on the short but rugged opening act of the 2024 Giro.
Bardet was able to hang tough as far as the Colle Maddalena, but he was distanced by the front group midway up the climb, and he would lose just under a minute by the finish on the banks of the Po. Speaking to Cyclingnews in Novara on Monday, however, Bardet insisted that he had remained calm throughout that ordeal.
“I never panic,” Bardet said. “It was just fate, but I was well supported by the team. But no, there was no panic. There’s never panic. I only started to feel ill during the first stage, not beforehand. I had some stomach problems, and I was struggling to drink and to eat.”
The illness meant that Sunday’s summit finish at Oropa became an exercise in damage limitation for Bardet, who was in no condition to follow the infernal tempo laid down by stage winner Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates). Once again, however, Bardet was able to keep a cap on his losses to the other men with designs on a podium finish, coming in 1:20 down on Pogacar.
“I still had stomach problems on Sunday, but it was better,” Bardet said. “I was afraid I might really crack, but in situations like that, I think you have to just forget the plans you had beforehand. You just put your head down and press on.
“It’s never good to lose time, but I wasn’t unhappy after the stage on Sunday, because I was able to push all the way up the climb. Hopefully it’s the first block laid down to get me back into the race.”
Pogacar’s pyrotechnics in the finale notwithstanding, stage 3 to Fossano was a rather calmer day on the Giro, and Bardet finished safely in the main peloton. In the general classification, the DSM-Firmenich rider now lies 21st, 2:33 down on Pogacar and 1:43 off a podium place. He claimed, however, that he paid little heed to the overall standings or to the performances of his GC rivals at Oropa.
“I haven’t looked at the standings,” Bardet said. “And I’m not worrying about rivals, I’m just doing my own race. I want to get back to 100% myself, because there’s still a long road to go.”
The Giro’s run from Piedmont into Tuscany over the coming days lends itself to the sprinters and the flat terrain might also provide an opportunity for Bardet to recover ahead of the next major rendezvous on Thursday, when the gruppo tackles a series of gravel sectors en route to Rapolano Terme.
“The next few days aren’t complicated, but they could be dangerous,” said Bardet, who will hope to draw on some positive Strade Bianche outings when he returns to the sterrato on Thursday. “It’s going to be hard, but it’s a stage that I like.”
