dsm-firmenich PostNL: “Damage is well limited with Romain Bardet”

Romain Bardet – along with Thaemen Arensmann – was one of the biggest losers in the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia. Just over twenty kilometers from the finish, on the Colle Maddalena, we saw the Frenchman from DSM-Firmenich withdraw.

In the end, the French team leader lost a good minute to Tadej Pogacar and fifteen seconds less to the rest of the favourites. “That was the first we heard from him,” athletic director Matt Winston said in a news release.

“Chris (Hamilton, editor) and Kevin (Vermeerke, editor) had positioned themselves first at the front of the peloton to put Romain in position, but they waited for him. This ensured that we were able to properly limit the damage. He fell too far at one point, but our boys kept chasing hard.

New plan?
“Riders are human, and it’s normal to have good days and bad days. Today was a bad day, which is something you don’t hope to experience on opening day, but it is what it is. We still have three weeks to go and we’re doing a lot of riding. I think the classification will change in The next three weeks if we make progress now and don’t lose any more time, that’s good otherwise we will have to switch to looking for stage wins.”