David Gaudu on Tadej Pogacar: "99% of the teams think he's going to win"

Il Lombardia closes out the World Tour season when it comes to one-day races this Saturday and we'll have in action plenty of top climbers. Among them David Gaudu who looked very strong at the Vuelta a España and Tour de Luxembourg but has since struggled to maintain it. He has a final opportunity this Saturday but also has a clear opinion on who is the man to beat.

"It's been 3 years since I was at the start, so I'm happy to be here and motivated to get a result. Yes, it's a bit of a comeback. Well, we know that Tadej is at the start. I think that 99% of the teams think he's going to win, and so do we," Gaudu admits in an interview with Eurosport. "So there you go, he's not safe. It's still a day of cycling, a bike race, so on paper, he's the favourite. Now, we'll see what we can do. Maybe we won't be able to do anything like in the last races, but in any case, we're going to race the way we want to race, to have fun, because it's the end of the season. We're going to give it our all until the finish, and we'll see what happens when we cross the line finish."

Groupama - FDJ has had a strong finale to the year and Gaudu, after recovering his best form, is motivated to perform. Very similarly to Remco Evenepoel, he has struggled since making the trip to Italy, however he is a contender for the podium and shares an interesting insight the days leading up to th erace.

"We will have to be there at the Sormano in any case. The other day, during the reconnaissance, we may have had a glimpse of the dress rehearsal of UAE Team Emirates, who overtook us while doing a lead-out for Tadej," he reveals. "We know more or less when he is going to attack. It remains a race that is not necessarily too tactical, because it is not on a circuit, there are not too many places to anticipate. So I think that everything should play out in the Sormano. We will have to hang on, see where we tip over at the top, what the forces will be, and run well in the finale, which promises to be very physical but also tactical".