Official: Bardet to join Decathlon and Seixas as sports manager

Romain Bardet will take on the position of sports manager at Decathlon CMA CGM for the 2027 season. 

The arrival of Bardet as part of the management at Paul Seixas' team was reported by L’Équipe at the weekend and confirmed by Decathlon on Thursday.

Bardet spent nine seasons a rider with AG2R La Mondiale, as Decathlon was then known, finishing on the podium of the Tour de France in 2016 and 2017. He finished his career with Picnic PostNL at last year’s Critérium du Dauphiné.

“I will join Decathlon CMA CGM from January 1, 2027 as sports manager. I am very happy to be back with the team. The role of sports management, along general management, to lead the team’s overall sporting project, from the WorldTour team to the development squad,” Bardet said in a video released by the team.

“I’ve always wanted to do this job, to have a role in performance, in rider development and in managing a team.”

Dominique Serieys will remain in situ as general manager of Decathlon CMA CGM, with Bardet working beneath him in the hierarchy. 

Bardet shares an agent – Joona Laukka – with Seixas, but it’s unclear if that connection will help Decathlon kept the youngster at the team beyond the end of his contract in 2026. Speaking to Daniel Benson, Bardet played a straight bat when asked about Seixas’ future.

“With Paul, we obviously have one of the best talents, but in 2026 I have no role around him, and my role is also to fit the ambitions for the team,” Bardet said. “I join in 2027, and this winter we’ll all sit around the table and draw up plans for the coming years in terms of performance. When you have a rider like Paul who can win all races, it will be a really interesting talk, but I want to emphasise again that I have a general role around all the riders.

“The focus is to bring the best possible support for as long as Paul is in the team. So far the team have done a really good job. You could see the rise from when he started racing WorldTour. He had his crash in the Dauphiné, but so far the team has been really good. There are always these talks about what happens in one and a half years, but let’s make sure that we build the best possible structure because there’s still at least more than 18 months. We don’t need extra distractions about what could happen. The team is just focused on bringing Paul to the Tour de France in the best possible condition.”

Seixas will make his Tour de France debut this year after a spring campaign that saw him win Itzulia Basque Country and Flèche Wallonne and enjoy a duel with Tadej Pogacar at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

The 19-year-old abandoned the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes on the final stage after crashing the previous day, but his Tour de France participation is not in doubt.