An empty parking lot on the fringes of Muscat is about as far removed as possible from the white heat and intense scrutiny of the Tour de France, but Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) was not remotely concerned as he prepared for stage 1 of the Tour of Oman. Despite his exploits in La Grande Boucle, he is a French rider with a healthy appetite for life and racing beyond the month of July. He is in Oman with cautious ambition.
“I had a good winter of training, but there’s always a bit of uncertainty and doubt about how your condition will be in your first stage race of the season [Bardet raced the GP Marseillaise last month], especially with the heat here in Oman. I think it’s a good course for testing your form and maybe trying to win a stage along the way,” Bardet told Cyclingnews as he took shelter from the sun in the passenger seat of a team car.
By day’s end, Bardet would have solid indications that his was a winter well spent. Present and correct when the front group was reduced to just 16 riders on the final climb of Al Jissah, he was prominent among the chasers behind stage winner Bob Jungels (Etixx-QuickStep), eventually placing third on the stage.
ADVERTISEMENT
Bardet will face greater examinations later in the week on the finish on the slopes of Green Mountain, although next month’s Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya are his first bona fide targets of the year. The race he covets above all others this and every spring, however, is Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a love affair spanning back to his amateur days, when he placed second in the under-23 edition in 2011.
“That’s a race where I go in with ambition every year, I have a good feeling with it,” Bardet said. “2016 will be my fourth time to do it, so I think I now know a little bit about how the race plays out and I’d like to able to get a big result at Liège pretty soon.”
Finishing sixth in the front group last year’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege was confirmation that the mammoth distance is no obstacle to the bantamweight Frenchman.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1U7BQAi
No comments:
Post a Comment