Frenchman struggles through Tour de France but wins polka-dot jersey
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Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) polkadot jersey(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) stage 20 Tour de France(Image credit: Getty Images)
Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) in the mountains classification leader's jersey(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) wears the polkadot jersey as the leader of the mountain classification at the Tour de France(Image credit: Getty Images)
Romain Bardet finishes stage 6 at the Tour de France(Image credit: Getty Images)
Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) may opt to ride the Giro d'Italia in 2020 after struggling through this year's Tour de France where he won the polka-dot mountains jersey but only finished 15th overall.
"We're going to wait until the Tour route is published to decide if he'll be there next year," AG2R La Mondiale's sports director Vincent Lavenu told Le Dauphiné Libéré newspaper on Sunday.
"Romain's certainly keen to try other things. He's often expressed his wish to take part in the Giro."
Competing in the Tour de France afterward the Giro d'Italia in 2020, in any case, would not be ruled out.
He's the third Frenchman in three years to do so after Julian Alaphilippe and Warren Barguil, despite only leading over one climb in the entire race.
"Nothing has been easy in this year's Tour," Bardet told the French newspaper. "Thanks to my team, we've managed to reinvent ourselves.
"And with this jersey, this will be the fifth time I go onto the podium on the Champs-Élysées, each time with a different prize. I feel immensely privileged to be able to do so.
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"This jersey symbolizes hope and not giving up. It's not been a great year in terms of how I feel. But whatever, you must never give up in life."
Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
