Dass er möglicherweise DSM verlassen wird:
One guy I was sad to see leave the race was Romain Bardet; what a shame. If you caught the final images of him climbing into the back of the Team DSM car and being sick before getting in, you might think that was down to his bad stomach. I have an alternative theory that it was actually just the thought of a) his plans going down the plughole, and b) him having to climb into a DSM team car. Let me explain.
If you remember back to last season, Bardet was flicked by his then-new team and not taken to the Tour de France as he had a difficult spring. Now he’s in his second year with the team and seems (up until stage 14) to have been having a terrific season. He won the Tour of the Alps and was performing outstandingly well in the opening week of the Giro. So is that down to things clicking at DSM for him? I wouldn’t be so sure.
Sure, he’s signed to the team until 2024, but I bet he’s putting on a great show in the hope that a few teams will take notice – so when he eventually wants to give DSM the flick sometime this season, someone will want to snap him up. It’s not uncommon for riders to jump from this team mid-season. It speaks volumes about how much the team infrastructure sucks if a rider is willing to say ‘fuck it’ to a WorldTour team and the money that comes with it.
The latest rider rumoured to want out of his DSM contract is Thymen Arensman. Will Bardet be next? My guess is yes. He’s a seriously lovely guy, one of the only Frenchies I chat with. I hope he gets to a team that isn’t built like some kind of locked-in cult. From what I know, you get on the squad, and you’re not allowed any outside form of coaching, sports nutrition advice, nothing like that. You do what the team wants, how they want it and when they want it. It doesn’t matter if you have a successful partnership with a private coach; it’s the team’s way or the highway. And it seems to be more are taking the highway.