Romain Bardet

Romain Bardet (born 9 November 1990) is a French professional racing cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam.

Bardet is known for his climbing and descending abilities, which make him one of the top general classification contenders in Grand Tours.

So far in his career, his best results have primarily come on home soil.

Bardet turned professional in 2012.

He distinguished himself in that year's Tour of Turkey especially in the 3rd stage, which was a mountain affair, where he attacked relentlessly to finally take fifth place.

He also finished fifth overall in the race.

The following season, Bardet rode his first Tour de France and took his first professional victory at the Tour de l'Ain.

His next victory came the following year when he won La Drôme Classic, his first single-day race win.

Bardet finished 4th overall at the Volta a Catalunya and also rode his first Critérium du Dauphiné where he finished 5th overall.

Going into the Tour de France, Bardet was team leader together with Jean-Christophe Péraud.

Bardet climbed to 3rd place overall at the end of the second week, and even had a short stint in the white jersey.

Despite losing his podium place in the final week, Bardet still attacked on downhill sections to potentially gain seconds on his rivals.

In the end, Bardet finished 6th overall and Péraud finished 2nd overall.

Thibaut Pinot took the win in the white jersey standings, in front of Bardet in 2nd place.

After a spring campaign which included a 6th place at Liège–Bastogne–Liège and 9th overall at the Tour de Romandie, Bardet was regarded as one of the outsiders for a podium spot in the Tour de France.

In his final stage race before the Tour, the Critérium du Dauphiné, Bardet went on the attack on the downhill section before the last climb on stage 5.

He gained a minute on the technical descent, then climbed up to the ski resort of Pra-Loup to win the stage solo, 36 seconds ahead of second-placed Tejay van Garderen.

He went on to finish 6th overall at the race.

At the Tour de France, Bardet lost time in the crosswinds in the Netherlands and the team time trial in the first week.

When the mountains finally arrived, Bardet lost even more time and with almost half of the race done, out of general classification contention.

On the last day in the Pyrenees, he went into the breakaway and finished third in the stage to Plateau de Beille.

Bardet and Thibaut Pinot were part of a breakaway and led over the top of the final Côte de la Croix Neuve climb of Stage 14.

However, the pair were caught and overtaken by Steve Cummings on the short descent to the finish at Mende Aerodrome, and Bardet finished third in the stage.

He finished the Tour in second position in the final general classification, 4:05 behind Chris Froome, becoming the sixth Frenchman to finish in the top three in the final general classification over the previous 30 editions; the other five were Pinot and Jean-Christophe Péraud (both 2014), Richard Virenque (1996, 1997), Laurent Fignon (1989) and Jean-François Bernard (1987).

He has won three stages in the Tour de France in three separate years running from 2015 to 2017; he placed in the top ten overall for five consecutive years (from 2014 to 2018) and finished on the podium twice: second overall in 2016 and third overall in 2017.

On 23 July 2015, after a solo breakaway, Bardet won Stage 18, a mountain stage for his first Tour de France stage victory.

The next day, he claimed the polka dot jersey for the first time, after finishing fifth in Stage 19, another mountain stage.

However, he lost the polka dot jersey to Chris Froome on Stage 20.

Bardet finished in ninth place in the final general classification and won the combativity award of the Tour.

In February 2016, Bardet repeatedly attacked Vincenzo Nibali during Stage 4 of the Tour of Oman and ultimately finished the stage in second position, 9 seconds behind him.

Bardet finished the Tour of Oman second overall, 15 seconds behind Nibali.

In June, Bardet attacked during Stage 6 of Critérium du Dauphiné and ultimately finished second in the stage after being outsprinted by Thibaut Pinot to the finish line in Méribel.

After Stage 6, Bardet rose to third overall in the general classification, 21 seconds behind the leader Chris Froome.

Bardet finished second overall in the Critérium du Dauphiné final general classification, 12 seconds behind Froome.

On Stage 19 of the Tour de France, Bardet and his team mate Mikaël Cherel attacked together on a wet descent before the penultimate climb.

Bardet escaped the yellow jersey group on the lower slopes of Mont Blanc with 10 km to go.

Bardet caught the breakaway survivor Rui Costa with 7 km to go, dropped him on the steepest pitches of the final climb with 3.2 km remaining and won the stage by 23 seconds over second-placed Joaquim Rodríguez; ultimately, he was the only Frenchman to win a stage in the 2016 Tour de France.

After winning Stage 19, Bardet rose from fifth to second overall in the general classification.

He has also worn the Young rider classification jersey, and won the Mountains classification jersey in 2019 as well as the overall Combativity Award in 2015.

Outside of France, he won a stage at the 2021 Vuelta a España, and won the general classification at the 2022 Tour of the Alps.