With his success south of Adelaide, Bardet added another top result to his palmares. The 35-year-old had already won two UCI Gravel World Series races last year in Monsterrando, Italy, and Font Romeu, France. However, his World Championship debut did not go according to plan and Bardet had to abandon the race in Limburg, the Netherlands, due to a puncture. This year, the official UCI title fights will take place in Nannup, Australia (4th to 11th October).
Bardet, who now rides for the Factor Racing team, needed 3:30:07 hours for the 127-kilometre race. The Frenchman is likely to have benefited from his climbing skills on the hilly course with just over 2,300 metres of ascent. During his active career on the road, Bardet won three of his four Tour stage victories on mountainous terrain. His lead over second-placed Cameron Jones (Australia) was 54 seconds. Alexey Vermeulen (USA), who was under contract with the predecessor team of Visma | Lease a Bike between 2016 and 2017, completed the podium with a gap of 1:42 minutes.
Bardet contested his last road race last year at the Critérium du Dauphiné. In addition to his total of four stage wins at the Tour de France, the man from Auvergne has twice finished on the podium of the Tour of France. He finished second overall in 2016 and third a year later. In his almost 14-year career, Bardet also won the Tour de France mountain classification (2019). He also immortalised himself at Liège-Bastogne-Liège with two podium finishes: in 2024 he finished one of the most important spring classics in second place, and in 2018 he came third.
Julian Schultz
Editor
