‘If I wanted to chase results, I would have stayed on the road’ – Romain Bardet debuts at Unbound Gravel 200 and finds surge in off-road popularity ‘a bit strange’

Four-time Tour de France stage winner Romain Bardet (Factor Racing – RCC) has won four of his six gravel races so far this season, but the former WorldTour pro emphasised that he is really ‘retired’ and not chasing results.

He was intrigued by all the tales and mounting prestige of Unbound Gravel 200 in Kansas, so added the race to his calendar this year, his first full season focused on dirt. The 207-mile racing adventure on Saturday will be his longest one-day race, but he’s also added up the miles this month driving, 4,000 miles so far, on a one-month family adventure on US soil, taking in eight states with his wife Amandine and son Angus.