2023-07-29 13:07:32
The image sent chills down my spine. Romain Bardet, lying in the gravel, completely groggy after falling in the descent from the Col de Saxel at the start of the 14th stage of the Tour de France, on July 15, between Annemasse and Morzine. Two weeks later, the French resumed the start of a race, the Clasica San Sebastian. And he took the opportunity to return to his violent fall with The Team.
“I had attacked on the descent, I am taken back by three, four guys, says the one who is a specialist in the exercise. We picked up speed in a long straight line, I was off the road, and we arrive much too quickly in this corner, which was in the shadows and which was not specially announced. The first riders crashed and cut me off the line, I went straight in the gravel, my front wheel slipped and I hit head first. »
On the ground, the Auvergnat is shaken. Completely stunned by this intense shock, he does not realize that his teammates are waiting for him. “My first memory is when my sports director is there, he says. I have the impression that between my fall and the moment when I started to discuss, it lasted an eternity, I was in the pampas. »
Four days of symptoms
Still at L’Équipe, Romain Bardet said he wanted to get back on the road, before being dissuaded by the doctor. “She knew how to find the right words: that I had typed well, that I absolutely had to stop,” explains the DSM runner.
Two weeks later, after having suffered for four days from headaches and fatigue then slowly resumed training, the Frenchman will therefore participate in a new race. The opportunity to forget this bad memory and show his qualities, even if his preparation was not ideal.
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