The leading local contender for the Tour de France, David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) has said that he will be riding the upcoming Grand Boucle without any specific targets on the GC classification.
The Groupama-FDJ racer was the best-placed Tour finisher for the host nation in both of the last two editions, placing ninth in 2023 and fourth in 2022.
The Frenchman will be racing in the Mercan’Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes this Wednesday, prior to heading on to the Critérium du Dauphiné. He will want to ensure a strong enough performance, particularly after last year’s below-expectations ride in the same race, gives him a boost going into the French Nationals and then above all, the Tour de France.
Regarding the Tour itself and what he can achieve there, Gaudu told L’Équipe on Wednesday that he “was not setting up any specific barriers.” Rather than put pressure on himself to get on the podium like he tried, and failed to do, in 2023, his idea would be to evaluate during the race itself what he could achieve.
“We’re going to take things as they come and try to be more offensive,” Gaudu said. “If I’m eighth or ninth at the end of the first week, I hope I’d be able to get in the breaks, even if it means I then crack and drop back to 15th or 20th overall.”
“What I’ve no intention of doing is sitting up and losing time intentionally in the first few days.”
After suffering one crash in O Gran Camino during the recon because of strong winds and another in Paris-Nice, Gaudu abandoned on the last stage with illness. He then crashed again in the Itzulia Basque Country and suffered a deep gash in his hand that forced him to abandon.
His luck turned around with a win in the Tour du Jura and after a lowkey ride in the Tour de Romandie, and a three-week training camp on Teide, Gaudu is now back in racing this Wednesday at the Mercan’Tour.
“It’s a good Classic to do because there aren’t that many for climbers,” Gaudu observed, about the race which covers 80 kilometres of stage 20 of the Tour de France.
Asked whether he had watched the Giro d’Italia and if he felt attracted to it because of the less controlled style of racing, Gaudu agreed.
“It’s not necessarily a nicer racer than the Tour, but you can see that it offers more freedom of manoeuvre.”
“But the Tour is still the Tour, the greatest race in the world, so I should be there, even if it’s more chained down and there are more teams keeping a lid on things.”
“But there are also days where it’s possible to make some moves. That doesn’t happen all the time, but it can happen, if you have the legs and the confidence and the stars align.”
The challenges of 2024
2024 has not been an easy year, Gaudu recognised, “but I’ve always been able to get back up. If I didn’t still have that ‘mad dog’ mentality, I wouldn’t have attacked at the foot of the Mont Poupet climb in the Tour du Jura [a race he won in April]."
“That was maybe the day where I’ve felt the most liberated, where I just told myself ‘go for it and see what happens.’
However, in the Tour, rather than stage wins, his biggest goal will be “to stick with the GC favourites as long as possible. GC racing is what makes me dream.”
“I’ve already been up there in Paris-Nice” - placing second in 2023. “I’ve also placed fourth in the Tour the year before. Two riders” - Tadej Pogačar and, assuming he races in July, Jonas Vingegaard - “are a level above the rest, and one has shown that more than ever in the recent Giro d'Italia, so we know they’ll be in the thick of the action. We’ll have to see how it plays out on the ground.”
Gaudu is also on the comeback trail at the Dauphiné, where he finished an unremarkable 30th last year. But he explained that rather than suffering the consequences of an overload in training like in 2023, this time round his recent altitude camp had been based on very specific training tasks and he hoped to be in better shape as a result.
There then remains the biggest challenge of them all, the Tour, where Gaudu said his aims, albeit not necessarily this year, remained very ambitious.
“My dream is to get on the podium in the Tour. My biggest dream would be to win it, but you have to be realistic, that would be very, very complicated,” he told L’Équipe.
“The podium is much more feasible, even if that’s very hard too. Liege, where I finished third back in 2021, remains my dream Classic to try and win. But in [stage racing] GC battles I’ve still got some good cards to play, too.”
