Romain Bardet thanks rescue teams after heavy crash descending Mont Ventoux

Romain Bardet retired from professional road racing in 2025, but he has remained extremely active over the past year. He can regularly be found on the back of a motorbike with a microphone in his hand while covering races, but he has also thrown himself into gravel racing. The Frenchman has looked completely at home on the gravel bike, although a recent outing went badly wrong and left him facing several weeks of recovery.

During his 15-year professional career, Bardet established himself as one of France's best climbers. He finished second in the 2016 Tour de France, won the polka-dot jersey in 2019 and claimed four Tour stage victories. Perhaps the most iconic of those came on the opening stage of the 2024 Tour, when he crossed the finish line alongside teammate Frank van den Broek to take the stage victory and pull on the yellow jersey.

A year after that memorable success, Bardet brought his professional road career to an end following the Critérium du Dauphiné. But he certainly did not stop racing his bike. He had already sampled gravel racing during the final years of his road career and decided to pursue it much more seriously after retiring. He quickly proved extremely competitive, winning multiple rounds of the UCI Gravel World Series. Bardet also took on Unbound 200 in the United States this year, although his race ultimately ended in a DNF.

This week, he took out his gravel bike to ride in France. The former professional cyclist went with his family to Mont Ventoux, where the Tour de France Femmes will finish this Friday. Bardet rode up the famous climb together with his young son, but the descent ended much less happily for the Frenchman. Bardet suffered a heavy crash while coming back down the mountain.

On Instagram, Bardet shared an update showing that he had been injured in the crash and had one arm in a sling. "The Ventoux climb with the whole family was unforgettable, the descent on the gravel bikes a little less so. Huge thanks to the rescue teams." Bardet added that he now faces a few weeks of recovery and urged cyclists to remain careful on both roads and trails, before promising to be back soon.