Another day, another uphill finish, another cobweb blown away. Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) was where he was expected to be in the finale of stage 3 of the Tour of Oman, and he`s where he wants to be ahead of Saturday`s decisive leg to Green Mountain. The Frenchman placed seventh on Thursday`s stage to Quriyat, finishing in the same time as winner Søren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb), an improvement on his showing the previous afternoon, when he conceded seven seconds to Ben Hermans (BMC Racing) in the last push up the final drag. After crossing the line on Thursday, Bardet soft-pedalled on a short warm-down on the plateau past the finish, before doubling back to where the AG2R La Mondiale team cars were parked. On arriving, Bardet`s teammates were swapping war stories from the rapid finale, but they scarcely needed to ask the boss as how his afternoon had finished. It was simply another day in the office, and as he sat on a cooler box to change, Bardet told reporters that he was pleased with his progress thus far.ADVERTISEMENT `I`m just back to racing so I`m missing a bit of rhythm but that`s normal. Still, every day I`m going a bit better, so that`s encouraging ahead of what`s to come,` said Bardet, who lies sixth overall, 21 seconds behind the red jersey of Hermans. The grand denouement of this Tour of Oman arrives on Saturday with the summit finish atop Green Mountain, a stiff proposition at this early juncture in the campaign. Like a singer practising the scales, Bardet is glad of the chance to run through his range on shorter uphill finales early in the week ahead of the major recital at the weekend. `It`s good, and it suits me. The structure of the race is allowing me to gain in power every day before Saturday,` Bardet said. `The finish on Saturday is the one that I`m most interested in.`
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