Bardet chooses defiance at the Tour de France
Outside Bar Postel in the centre of Brioude, the band was playing a passable version of 'The Last Time' by the Rolling Stones. Their competition around the block at Godart Daniel was belting out Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Sweet Home Alabama.' Both felt appropriate backing music for the homecoming of the town's most famous son, Romain Bardet, on stage 9 of the Tour de France.
Brioude was hosting La Grande Boucle for just the second time – it was the site of a stage start in 2008 – and it seems difficult to imagine that a town of 7,100 inhabitants could allow itself the extravagance too many more times before the end of Bardet's career.
Murals of Bardet and his AG2R La Mondiale teammates were applied to municipal buildings in the town centre to add to the festive ambience of the Bastille Day stage. The playing field in the municipal stadium, meanwhile, was decorated with an imprint of Bardet's face, created by grass artist Aurélien Baude, who took two weeks to create the image.
Despite – or perhaps because of – his trying Tour to this point, Bardet was determined to mark the occasion with a show of defiance. On the Côte de Saint-Just, a little over 13km from home, he attacked forcefully from a peloton that had been travelling along more than quarter of an hour behind the break of the day.
Bardet was joined in his effort by Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) and George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma), but their offensive was a short-lived one as Team Ineos restored order at the head of the peloton, which rolled home together into Brioude. In the overall standings, Bardet lies in 23rd place, still 3:20 behind maillot jaune Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and 2:27 behind Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ).
"It was very emotional. These are my home roads and a lot of people I knew very well were cheering from the side of the road, so it was a very special day," Bardet said after wheeling to a halt just past the finishing straight. It remains to be seen if this brief but spirited flicker on home roads can ignite his guttering Tour challenge.
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