Un leader pour le classement général et deux sprinteurs : voici comment va s'articuler le Team dsm-firmenich PostNL sur le Tour d'Italie 2024 ! Pour le général, la formation néerlandaise comptera sur Romain Bardet, dont ce sera la troisième participation au Giro. Apparu très en forme sur ces deux dernières courses, et notamment sur Liège-Bastogne-Liège, qu'il a conclu à la deuxième place, le grimpeur auvergnat a un très beau coup à jouer sur cette 107e édition, un podium semblant tout à fait imaginable, même si les 70 kilomètres de contre-la-montre ne seront pas pour lui plaire. Deux ans après son terrible abandon sur maladie alors qu'il était quatrième du général et paraissait avoir la gagne du Giro dans les jambes, Romain Bardet aborde le Tour d'Italie avec envie et ambition.
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SportTranscription
00:00 Pogacar mentioned you as one of his main rivals for the GC. Do you agree?
00:07 Honestly,
00:10 it's, I mean, you know, it's a really such a hard job in itself to
00:23 already being there and fighting and hopefully have a clear run
00:28 to be able to give your best, especially the first, the third week. The third week will be
00:33 important for me and yeah, yeah, hopefully I can really have a reach a high level in the
00:38 third week of the Giro and if I haven't lost too much time before that, then maybe I can
00:44 end up with something great. But, you know, Pogacar is already one level above the rest,
00:52 so I don't really want to focus too much on him in this Giro.
00:57 What I like the most about the Giro is probably the race, the way we can race it. I mean,
01:04 I expect to have really hard conditions during the third weeks and yeah, you know,
01:10 it's the kind of race where, yeah, hopefully you can turn things around with long red, longer,
01:19 long breakaway kind of sections with terrible weather and this is all this can be something
01:28 that you from the from inside the race you feel like it would be a terrible day. But I think
01:34 this is also why I came here because I feel that there is when you really have the will in the Giro
01:43 and I have good legs. It's a race that it's a bit less locked than other Grands Tour you can find
01:50 and if you really have the will to commit, you can have more opportunities here to be honest,
01:58 to really have an impact on the race. I know you've contemplated retirement and weighing that
02:05 up decision at the end of the year. I think you said you were going to decide in the summer.
02:08 So I'm assuming no decision has been taken, but I'm just wondering how you're feeling sort of
02:13 in terms of energy and morale at this point in your career, especially after the spring and that
02:18 result at the end? Yeah, thanks man. Very good question. I think the recent results give me a
02:27 massive boost in the motivation. I mean, I haven't changed anything, but we
02:37 just all the seasons so far was a bit displayed. I was really keen this winter to go back to the
02:45 same program I had in 2022 because I felt like I was really at my best level coming into the Giro
02:53 and the first part of the 2022 Giro. So yeah, for me, it was the main goal of the team this year to
03:01 try to replicate and make some adjustment to really be in the kind of shape I was
03:08 back then two years ago. And already getting some nice satisfaction with
03:17 how the shape was in Arles and then in Liege also makes me believe that I'm on the right path and
03:27 that I'm still really, really humble coming into this Giro. A lot can happen and I will
03:33 have to feel, I need to see how I feel in the mountains. Yeah, the main thing for me is really
03:40 to be really consistent and hopefully having this kind of flow going in the third week
03:48 to take opportunities to really be a major actor of the race. Looking ahead specifically at the
03:57 opening weekend, we've got two stages that are really difficult in and around Turin.
04:02 Has that affected how you prepared for the race for, I think it's the earliest summit
04:06 finish in many decades now and it should see possibly the GC form an order by Monday?
04:12 Yeah, absolutely. I think it will be important but you also have to put it into context. I mean,
04:20 okay, there will be for sure some differences in the GC. That is just the opening weekend and
04:25 yeah, as always, the Giro will be decided in the third week. I think we might see some
04:33 differences in the level of performance of the main GC guy in the first weekend but
04:39 I think it will be within a reasonable amount of time and so you have to be good there but it will
04:47 be, yeah, to make your race a success what really counts is to be really good in the third week.
04:55 The mountains classification can be a goal for you?
04:57 No, no, it's not a primary goal. I mean, you never know what can happen during the race.
05:05 She loses at some point tons of time then I will go in probably in full breakaway mode
05:13 but no, I mean, I want to try to find this little bit of space
05:24 during the race to play my cards maybe probably a bit before like Pogacar will do
05:32 because I know it will be hard to compete head to head with him on the final climb to be honest.
05:39 It is up to guys like me I think to try to decide the race in a bit of a different way.
05:48 I mean, I'm not in the full GC mode so I'm going to take the race day by day.
05:55 You can achieve a very good GC result in the Giro in a bit different way. I think we saw like with
06:02 Pinot last year what he did he was super valiant in the break gaining some time in some days.
06:08 So for me it's like I don't want to think about the next day I want to approach
06:15 yeah every day like a bit like a classic because we also have some big target and some
06:21 flat stages here. So you know I really want to take also every mountain stage like it's an
06:29 opportunity to win and not thinking about really gaining time or you know saving for the for the
06:35 next day. I think for me it is what could bring the best GC so I don't think too much about also
06:42 the time trial I will just give my best on these days and we'll see we'll see where I get.
06:50 Just to follow up on what you said about replicating the preparation from 2022 could
06:56 you just explain a bit more about what that involved and maybe how that was different
07:00 to previous years or even 2023? Yeah trying to replicate means a lot of
07:08 sacrifices in the early season like what works really well for me is to accumulate two long
07:16 altitude camps in less than three months so we really did that in a good way and also to
07:25 not putting too much of focus in the first races of the season. I think that's why when you really
07:34 want to be good and fresh going into May and all the way into Rome I think it's important to really
07:42 manage your energy so you don't have to have big expectations for the early season. Just putting
07:48 the miles in doing the good work in altitude and I was happy to see I was on track when I saw my
07:55 level in the last period of racing so yeah for me like I knew going into 2024 the period will
08:06 really matter is from two of the Alps in the world to the end of the Giro so that's a bit of a
08:12 different approach because when you want to go hard in the Tour you have more one week stage race
08:19 in the first part of the season then you can afford to have a good break and recover and do
08:25 a steady build up to going into June. Now it's a bit different because with the Giro coming early
08:34 May you can't really rest in the first part of the season so it's important to manage your energy
08:43 through this period. Tell us something about your young teammates because yourself you probably
08:51 didn't come to the Giro early enough in your career. You did very well at the Tour of Turkey
08:57 and some of your young teammates did well in Turkey last week, Tobias Lund and you would have
09:03 probably mentored Max Poul if he was at the Giro. What can we expect from this young group of DSM?
09:14 I think I'm really impressed by how fast and how good they are growing.
09:20 I think they've been really in the right environment. The team is sending them
09:27 after a good block of preparation to the right races to develop, getting the confidence from
09:35 having some results. So yeah for me it's a shame that we missed Max here because it would have been
09:44 a big advantage to have two guys in the deep final on the mountain stage. Even if I truly believe
09:51 the climbing group here to support me, Max also I think would have had his say in the GC.
10:00 But yeah so for me it's also like we haven't built a team here to go 100% for me in the GC.
10:12 We want to achieve some stage wins in the sprint with Fabio and Tobi will be there to support and
10:18 maybe also have his own opportunity. And also we'll target the mountain stages and I'm here to
10:24 try to also have the right impact on the group to help everyone achieving these goals. So it's not
10:34 like we are not focused on the GC 100%.