2015 was very positive for  Romain Bardet who won a stage and finished 9th in the Tour de France. The Ag2r La Mondiale is now preparing for 2016 and spoke to VeloPro at the first training camp for his team.

Bardet claims that it is still too early to make definite plans as he needs "easier periods to be as fresh as possible at the start of the Tour de France" as he wants to "extend the peak of form until the middle of August for the Olympic Games." To achieve this, "I must be less good at the Dauphiné" and then peak in the last week of the Tour de France "that is often decisive for the general classification." Obviously the "fifteen days leading up the Olympic Games after the Tour" will be crucial and it won't be easy to handle a possible "participation in the Clasica San Sebastian, the organization of a possible training camp and find the right date of arrival in Rio to get used to the time zone and climate. "

His schedule is not yet fully defined, because he waits "for the courses of the WorldTour races in March before deciding whether to do Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico and then the Tour of Catalonia and the Tour of the Basque Country". He will then do Liege -Bastogne-Liege and the Tour de Romandie.  The objective is to "have peak shape in March and then gradually build up to the Tour." 

Bardet feels he has to work to be "more consistent in the key stages" if he wants to fight for an overall victory and, in this respect, 2015 was a starting point. However, he claims that to really be a GC rider it is no longer enough to fight for "a top 5 in WorldTour races." The goal i now the podium. The 25-year-old Frenchman is afraid of the internal competition in the team as he sees the rise of riders like Alexis Vuillermoz and Piere Latour as "a force" and not "a brake".

Bardet will soon attend a training camp with the French national team which will be important to "create a group dynamic that head coach Bernard Bourreau wants" and which will involve mainly young riders that Bardet know well. However, " it will be a battle for selection" for the Olympics as there are only four places available and "the goal will not be just to go to Rio, but to do well there."