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Farewell seasons and even Grand Tours can so often turn into a “will they, won’t they” narrative about whether a rider will ever achieve the unlikely fairytale ending. More often than not those narratives drag on until the last possible moment, with no fairytale forthcoming.
Not so for Romain Bardet; he announced his retirement a matter of days ago and delivered the fairytale stage win – and his first-ever yellow jersey – at the first possible opportunity.
We got a closer look at his Scott Foil RC just as he was getting comfortable in his first yellow jersey.
Bardet, and second-place Frank van den Broek, both raced on Scott’s Foil RC with Shimano groupsets and wheels.Bardet raced Shimano’s C36 wheels while Van den Broeck, who spent the entire day in the break, raced the deeper C50s.With 26 mm tyres in a sea of 28s and 30s, Bardet sticks with the narrower Vittoria Corsa Pro upfront, but does pair it to the wider 28 mm out back.54:40 chainrings for Bardet on a fairly battered pair of 172.5 mm Dura-Ace cranks.The Scott Foil features a direct mount hanger. Bardet prefers a classic-esque, traditional-esque round drop handlebar shape.And opts for this pretty low-set sprint shifter.If only there could have been two number 1s today.The Foil was among the first of the current wave of “narrower is faster” aero bikes as seen in this extremely narrow seat tube. As per most teams, DSM-Firmenich PostNL secure their timing transponder pods under a section of inner tube.Scott’s sister brand Syncros provides the team’s saddles, and Bardet chooses the Belcarra R SL Channel.And Elite provides its LeggeroCarbon bottle cages. I often think it’s pretty tough to read stem notes mid-peloton. How much more difficult must it be with the notes attached sideways?Of all the great days in Bardet’s career, the first of the 2024 Tour will surely rank among the highest.
