Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) came to a standstill beyond the finish line on stage 4 of the Critérium du Dauphiné and, after a brief moment to catch his breath, ushered the waiting media over, telling them he was "happy" with his time trial performance, and that it "augurs well" for the remainder of the race. When television had had their fill, however, Bardet was finally informed of the exact time gaps by the written press, and his face fell.
"1:53 to Richie Porte, Romain."
"Ah, that's a lot," he replied, visibly taken aback for a moment. "I thought it would be a bit less…"
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Nevertheless, he still stuck to his original take that it had been a good day on the bike. "I'm still happy with my feelings today," he added.
The Dauphiné time trial was Bardet's second of the season, and his second poor one – third overall going into the final day of the Vuelta al País Vasco, he dropped to 15th, with team management suggesting he misjudged his warm-up. At the Dauphiné, he had been out to recon the 23.5km course and hoped to lose no more than a minute to his rivals, but ceded between 1:30 and 1:15 to Alejandro Valverde, Alberto Contador, and Chris Froome, not to mention the 1:53 to Porte.
Bardet is no natural time triallist but he has worked on the discipline over the winter and has even been in close collaboration with Factor over the development of its first ever TT bike. Despite there being just 36.5km of time trialling at this year's Tour de France, the losses against the clock so far have been concerning.
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