‘It’s gonna look like a road race with a lot of fighting for position’ – Romain Bardet extends season at UCI Gravel World Championships

Romain Bardet strains up for France at a seventh World Championships on Sunday, this time swapping the street for gravel.

He is solely been a ‘gravel racer’ for simply 9 weeks, so remains to be in his infancy in comparison with the 14 years within the skilled peloton which he dropped at an in depth in June.

Final yr Bardet thought of retirement, then prolonged his contract with Picnic-PostNL by way of 2025. The plan was all the time to trip his 18th and remaining Grand Tour on the Giro d’Italia and bid farewell on the Criterium du Dauphinè. Adieu to the street, although, opened the door to gravel.

Chances are you’ll like

“It was a self-discipline that I’ve quite a lot of curiosity in, however I needed to wait till I actually stopped on the street to understand that,” Bardet defined to Cyclingnews on his drive from France to the Netherlands for the UCI Gravel World Championships and the elite males’s race on Sunday.

“In the previous couple of races that I did, even the blokes from the WorldTour had been up there within the high 10. However generally they weren’t the strongest of the sector, you realize. So it is fairly nonetheless a bit totally different.

“I used to be additionally impressed by the efforts it’s a must to put in to be within the entrance of the race. That is one thing that I like, as a result of it’s mainly nearly full fuel straight from the gun.”

He initially focused the prospect to trip the UCI Gravel World Championships on dwelling soil, when the 2025 occasion was deliberate to happen in Good, France. When the championships switched venues within the spring to the Netherlands, he continued together with his plan to strive gravel after street retirement, simply needing to piece the puzzle collectively by performing nicely at qualifier occasions or earn a wildcard from the nationwide federation.

“I have been actually fortunate to be in such a great workforce that basically understands my wants. For the final couple of years, I have been serious about retirement,” he instructed Cyclingnews.

“So after I referred to as my workforce principal, Iwan Spekenbrink, about doing 2025, or not, they actually made a brilliant good schedule for me to race an additional Giro and end my profession the place I needed on the Dauphine, after which a swap and trip for the workforce on gravel.”

“I believe it has been actually clean, and that is why I’m nonetheless a member of the workforce, however with additionally a bit extra freedom by way of my programme. I took my likelihood to line as much as some occasions.”

That ‘likelihood’ paid dividends with two wins in 4 UCI Gravel World Sequence qualifier races – he was tenth within the first in Sweden at Gravel Grit ‘n Grind, then adopted that up with wins at La Monsterrato in Italy and 66 Degrés Sud-Le Gravel in France, after which got here a fifth place at Sea Otter Europe Girona.

Chances are you’ll like

He mentioned every race had its personal character and challenges, with La Monsterrato reminding him of a Classics race and 66 Diploma Sud providing the climbing he recalled from stage racing.

“The one within the French Pyrenees in September, generally the climbs of six or seven kilometres lengthy, with altitude, it actually jogs my memory of a breakaway day for successful a stage of a Grand Tour. You’re actually by yourself combating towards 25 or 30-minute efforts,” the previous KOM winner of the Tour de France mentioned.

Bardet was identified for his attacking model, which introduced him a fourth stage victory on the Tour de France in 2024 on a hilly day, and with it a yellow jersey for the primary time in his profession.

“Personally, you realize, I stepped out of the street racing as a result of I needed to have extra freedom. And I am not racing world for championships. Within the Netherlands this yr, I am completely happy to come back. I am right here to get pleasure from using my bike.”

Worlds Course and Competitors

Bardet thought the route deliberate for southern Limberg on Sunday, 180km with 1,650 meters of climbing, could be hilly sufficient to create splits within the peloton, however that the riders with full street programmes of their legs would have a bonus. Furthemore, the Belgian and Dutch groups return to a different UCI Gravel Worlds with the biggest males’s squads – Belgium with 43 certified riders and the Netherlands with 39.

“I do know I am not gonna be as sharp and nearly as good as some guys like [Tom] Pidcock and possibly Tim Wellens, as a result of they’re tremendous good drivers, among the many greatest on the planet. So I believe bodily, it may be onerous to essentially match them,” mentioned the two-time Tour de France podium finisher.

“However I hope to be on the entrance, as a result of there will likely be a full contingent of Belgium and Dutch riders. I haven’t got tremendous excessive expectations, as a result of for me, it is extra probably gonna seem like a street race with quite a lot of combating for place and stuff.

“However I am up for the battle. You solely benefit from the day when you’re in entrance,” he mentioned with a wry snort.

A dozen elite males certified for UCI Gravel Worlds, together with French gravel champion Hugo Drechou, who has an extended listing of gravel successes, together with wins at Oregon Path Gravel, Gravel Mexico, World Sequence cease Alpine Gravel Problem and La Bescanonina Gravel previously two years. He is additionally appeared at Unbound Gravel 200 twice ending high 20 each occasions.

Bardet admitted he had met him by way of street racing two years in the past. This yr they’ve had a number of head-to-head battles on gravel, Drechou taking the French nationwide title in a dash forward of Bardet, then the Picnic rider going one higher at 66 Degrès Sud.

“The primary time I met him was two years in the past, after we had been racing this large occasion in France. I discovered myself the day after Lombardia with him the entrance, and so they additionally already appeared fairly robust. I believe he received the race that day. And since then, yeah, he’s making a residing from [gravel]. He is fairly robust.”

Does Bardet plan to maintain racing gravel into subsequent yr? He actually wasn’t able to plan that far forward but.

“Yeah, that is a chance. I imply, I solely began in August this yr and I missed a few of the greatest occasions. I might undoubtedly love to do a bit extra, however I do not take it because the continuity of my profession, or a second one. I am [here] only for enjoyable.

Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the 2025 UCI Gravel World Championships and the ultimate rounds of the Life Time Grand Prix – together with breaking information, interviews and evaluation reported by our journalists on the bottom in Limburg and Arkansas because the motion unfolds. Discover out extra.