Romain Bardet smashes it down the Col du Glandon to set up his stage 18 win at the Tour de France, soloing from 40km out to beat Pierre Rolland
Commentators were raving about Romain Bardet’s perfect descending on stage 18 of the Tour de France and the stats on Strava certainly back up the praise.
The young Ag2r-La Mondiale rider set the fastest Strava time down the descent of the Col du Glandon by a full 34 seconds from LottoNL-Jumbo’s Robert Gesink.
Before he attacked the descent and forged an unassailable lead over the chasing breakaway riders, Bardet also took the KoM up the ascent of the Glandon, but lost in minutes later to that man Gesink.
The pair battled it out again, although at very different times, for the title up the Lacets de Montvernier, with Gesink coming out on top again by 30 seconds.
Bardet, 24, described the himself as the #happiestriderever on his Strava account, which has seen him record over 12,000km in 2015 alone.
Perhaps the most impressive part of his ride on Thursday was the fact he averaged over 58kph on the Glandon descent, prompting Jonathan Vaughters to tweet this excellent analysis.
look at this dude… He put 35 seconds into the group behind using not his legs, but his balls. Chapeau.
— Jonathan Vaughters (@Vaughters) July 23, 2015
Watch highlights of stage 18 of the Tour de France