Romain Bardet could miss Ruta del Sol after 'embarrassing' injury at home

Frenchman Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale), third in the 2017 Tour de France behind Chris Froome, will sit out for two weeks after an "embarrassing" incident at home in Vence, France.

Minutes within Team Sky announcing Froome would begin his 2018 campaign in the Ruta del Sol stage race on February 14, Ag2r said that Bardet's presence is in doubt with a forearm injury.

"It's never nice to get hurt, especially at home," Bardet said. "It's annoying, but it's just a small setback.

"My injury is more embarrassing than serious, and I will continue to keep up my training before returning to competition very quickly."

The team has yet to specify what their Tour star was doing at home when the accident happened on Sunday. A week prior, he began his competitive season with eighth in the GP Marseillaise.

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Doctor Eric Bouvat said, "He suffered a cut, and a small muscle injury on his left forearm that required stitches, and for which he must wear a splint for two weeks."

Bardet, in his bid to win the Tour de France, trained two weeks ago on the Paris-Roubaix cobbles that will feature in Tour's ninth stage.

As Froome trained in South Africa over the last month, Bardet skirted the Côte d'Azur where he has a second home for warm weather training. On Sunday, Bardet posted an Instagram video of him climbing. "Work in progress ✌️#upyourgame"

With the injury and splint, "he will have to adjust his training schedule to allow time to heal," explained the team. "His participation in Ruta del Sol has been compromised."

The French WorldTour team will announce Bardet's new pre-Tour schedule in the coming weeks.

"We are only at the beginning of February, I have trained very well since my break in November, and I have clocked up 6000 kilometres since then," Bardet continued.

"The GP La Marseillaise confirmed my good feelings. It's just a shame; when the team, like Tony Gallopin in Bessèges, is very successful, to have to slow down my own preparation a little is annoying."

Once his preparation continues, he could resume racing in French one-day races the Classic de l'Ardèche Rhône Crussol and the Royal Bernard Drome Classic at the end of February.

Strade Bianche and the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race in March are already on his programme, as is the cobbled classic Dwars door Vlaanderen.