Albi (AFP)

Fifteenth at the moment of the Tour de France, a rank far from his hopes of departure, Romain Bardet (AG2R) claims to run without pressure and bet on the Alps to express himself, much more than on the next Pyrenees.

"I can not be happy with this start of the Tour, but it is at the end of three weeks that the conclusions will be drawn," said the Auvergnat team AG2R La Mondiale, which points to more than two minutes of the first favorite, Geraint Thomas (Ineos).

During the day of rest, the French, twice present on the podium of the Tour (2nd in 2016, 3rd in 2017), said to have passed beyond the disappointments, that it is the 19th place of the time trial by teams on July 7th or the delay in the first finish at the top, at La Planche des Belles Filles on Thursday. It is positive: "I have no more pressure, I'm no longer within 15 seconds, yesterday (Monday) I was relaxed, every other day I'm relaxed."

Has he been psychologically affected? "The high level sport is highs and lows," he says, "we would like to be at the top, but it's my seventh Tour, there are times harder than others, you have to know how to accept them, it takes a little time to digest. "

Moved by the welcome he received when he arrived Sunday in his town of Brioude (Haute-Loire), Romain Bardet wants to remain distanced: "I do not let myself get drunk by the daily conclusions that everyone draws. is the same cinema since I do the tour, we have to stay calm, it's in Paris that we'll see what it is. "

- Downward revision -

"I arrived at the start of the Tour with a little delay, we kept it for ourselves but I had to stop after the Dauphiné," he explains, "now the more days pass and the better I get meaning".

The sentence sounds like a promise. Especially in the Alps, since he foresees "a more traditional race in the Pyrenees": "Apart from a failure, there will be no big differences in the Tourmalet.We will say that I repeat myself, but I think that this edition is conducive to real twists in the Alps, in the third week. "

Only certainty, Bardet still plays the overall standings. Was he tempted to change his mind after La Planche des Belles Daughters? The answer was "it was way too early to make decisions that could be crippling." The argument stands: "Who would have thought of such gaps, Monday between favorites?"

His boss, Vincent Lavenu, confirms: "We are not going to give up the general classification, it's not what I expect from my leader."

In spite of everything, the ambitions have been revised downwards: "if we make a place in the first 6-7 of the overall ranking ... At the start of the Tour, obviously, we were hoping for better. glitches at the beginning of the Tour, if Romain is 5th, 6th or 7th, we are in. The goal is to make the best place Mathematically, the podium is not inaccessible. "

© 2019 AFP