Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) said on the first rest day of the Tour de France that he'd never felt so good in the race's first week, and Thursday's stage 12 finish at Peyragudes proved it was no bluff.
The Frenchman out-kicked the rest of the yellow jersey group with a perfectly-timed acceleration on the airport finish in the Pyrenees, blasting away with less than 500 metres to go to take his third stage win in three years.
On the road to Chambery last Sunday, Bardet had managed to place Chris Froome (Team Sky) under pressure with his high speed descending, but a working alliance between the Briton and the Astana riders had seen the Frenchman reeled in.
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This time out, there was no stopping the 26-year-old, whose first place in Peyragudes also nets the AG2R La Mondiale leader a 10-second time bonus. He remains third overall, but is now only 25 seconds off new yellow jersey Fabio Aru (Astana), and just 19 seconds behind Froome.
On a Pyrenean stage that Bardet had described as a climbers' marathon, there was no sign that Froome was going to crack until the last 500 metres. What seemed to be a stage finish made for Froome – and one where in 2012 he had managed to drop his own leader, albeit only briefly – suddenly became one for the French to celebrate their third win of this year's Tour.
"It's my third victory in three years in the Tour," Bardet pointed out. "I'm going to celebrate this because it means a lot for the team. Now I can concentrate on GC, with the overall victory as my big goal. There are still some really important mountain stages to go, and this is going to be a big battle."
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