Romain Bardet wasn't in Paris last week for the presentation of the 2019 Tour de France race route, but the AG2R La Mondiale team leader liked the mountainous, high-altitude, limited time trial route. With stage 9 on Bastille Day also finishing in his hometown of Brioude in the Massif Central, Bardet could not ask for a better route for another shot at overall victory.
Yet Bardet would like even more mountain finishes, more dirt roads and anything that can help him break Team Sky's stranglehold on the Tour. In an exclusive interview, he tells Cyclingnews he is in favour of anything that "shakes up the race", including six-rider teams, as proposed by UCI President David Lappartient.
"What's more boring than a few big teams controlling the race until the sprint or until the last kilometre of a climb? That's not the cycling we want," Bardet told Cyclingnews in an end-of-season interview.
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"I'm in favour of everything that shakes up the Tour de France and gives a chance to the brave riders who want to take some risks and give their all. It would be really good to put some fantasy back in the Tour. I think if we had 30 teams of just six riders at the Tour de France, it would be great, as then we could see some unexpected things happen. That's what cycling needs.
"It's a very beautiful route, which looks quite difficult on paper, with very little downtime," Bardet said of the 2019 route, noting few stages on which the overall contenders will be able to relax and recover during the 21 days of racing.
"There are a number of middle-sized mountains, and any time there are mid-sized mountain stages, you know that they're going to be very tricky, with uncertain outcomes. Then there are the high-mountain stages, with those mythical passes: the Izoard, Tourmalet, Galibier and Iseran. These important tests at altitude should be able to widen the gap between the favourites."
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You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/bardet-im-in-favour-of-everything-that-shakes-up-the-tour-de-france
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