Romain Bardet will lead the charge for AG2R-La Mondiale at the Criterium du Dauphine this weekend. It will be Bardet’s third consecutive appearance at the race and he will be looking to improve on his career-best finish of fifth in 2014.
Supporting Bardet will be Alexis Vuillermoz, Mikael Cherel and Cyril Gautier, while Samuel Dumoulin will be the team’s main hope for the sprints. Jan Bakelants could also be a stage contender for the French outfit. Ben Gastauer and Alexis Gougeard complete the line-up.
“As always, it is a beautiful but merciless race with a lot of well-known climbs in the Alps. In this context, this race will not only be a question of quantifiable target but also a matter of taking control in the decisive moments,” Bardet said. “I have not ridden since April, therefore I will need to get my competition rhythm back. The three first stages seem to be ideal to do so.
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“Then, I hope I will be able to compete with the GC contenders because I have been feeling in great shape over the last few weeks. We have an impressive team line-up, with riders who showed strong skills during last weekend in Bretagne.”
The Dauphine will be Bardet’s first race since the Tour de Romandie at the end of April, which drew to a close the first part of his season. He has taken the time to preview a number of the Tour de France stages in the Cantal region in the south-west of France ahead of the race next month. Bardet has also been to the Sierra Nevada for altitude training, but he has had to work his cycling training around the work he has also been doing for his master’s degree.
“I am studying management at the Grenoble Business School and, as part of my master degree, I did a work placement in public relations for the AS Montferrand rugby club. It was an interesting experience because I discovered new professional responsibilities,” he explained.
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