David Gaudu tries to see some positives in the failed Grande Boucle: "This Tour de France allowed me to work on myself"

Groupama - FDJ entered the Tour de France with the sole objective of chasing stage victories. Thus, unlike, past years, riders like David Gaudu and Valentin Madouas had full freedom to do their own thing. However all good intentions fall apart in face of lacking form, which was ultimately the case for the whole team of Marc Madiot. Prime example was the late addition to the roster, Lenny Martinez, who went completely unnoticed through the Tour bar his 11th place in the final time trial.

"It was a complicated Tour de France," confides David Gaudu to Cyclism'Actu. "Physically, I was struggling every day, but I always wanted to give it my all and not give up mentally. I had a few decent days, even good ones like on the Tourmalet or on the gravel stage, but unfortunately each time I suffered the backlash afterwards."

"In any case, this Tour de France allowed me to work on myself, and to accumulate the days of racing, which is what I needed after two or three years without racing much. I needed this Tour de France for the Vuelta, and I will need the Vuelta for the coming years," he adds.

"There is inevitably a bit of disappointment, but there were only five opportunities for the baroudeurs, and we had to be in good shape and in front on those days," looks back Gaudu's teammate Valentin Madouas at RMC Sport. "It's part of the Tour, we know that the opportunities are few, but it's by continuing with the same aim that we will manage to win. It's the first time in several years that we were focused on this objective of winning a stage, I think we had a good Tour, but at this level, the planets also have to be aligned. We didn't manage to put the ball in the back of the net when we had the opportunity," evaluated Madouas.