Romain Bardet powers to nice 3rd place at Classic Var

It was the expected challenging day of racing in France, where Romain Bardet came close to success and powered to a nice third place for Team dsm-firmenich PostNL at the summit finish on Mont Faron.

A group of seven riders went clear after the start and formed the breakaway of the day. While we were riding well together in the peloton in the flat parts of the race, the leaders got a gap of up to five minutes. Coming into the final 50 kilometres, we started moving up in the peloton to keep position, but also help with setting a nice pace to chase back the escapees. The guys did an amazing job keeping Romain Bardet safe going into the penultimate climb, where the breakaway was caught. In the descent leading into the finale climb, the Mont Faron, the peloton saw some big splits appearing. We were sharp and made the jump into the leading group with Romain and Kevin Vermaerke.

Into the final climb, both guys worked well together when the first attacks went and stayed calm. Coming closer to the finish line, it was only a small group of six fighting for the victory. Romain was in there for us and launched his sprint early to catch his opponents early. In the end, he was caught with less than 50 metres to go, still bringing home a great third place for the team in his first race of the 2024 campaign.

After the finish, Romain Bardet said: “It was really nice to get back racing on home soil today. We did a good race as a collective, the guys were all good and committed to giving us the best possible support for the final. It’s a bit frustrating to come that close at the end, but the legs are good and it’s positive to start the season like this.”

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Phil West added: “Our goal for the whole weekend in France is to work on good teamwork. We knew on this parcours we could do a good final with Romain [Bardet], Kevin and Chris. We invested energy in positioning to make sure we come into the final 50 kilometres in a good way, with a couple of key points along the way. Vlad, Sean, and Romain [Combaud] did a good job keeping the boys safe and towards the front in the key moments. There was a split in the last descent which meant that Chris was not quite there in the very front group. We made the jump with Kevin and Romain [Bardet] and then it was about riding a smart final. In the end, we just missed the win by a few metres, but we can be really happy with the teamwork today and are now looking forward to the next days.”