David Gaudu: "You will have to do your Tour de France, not give up and not necessarily worry about the 'Fantastic 4'"

David Gaudu sets off for the 2024 season perhaps as the face of Groupama-FDJ now, with the retirement of Thibaut Pinot. It is a team undergoing changes in it's structure, but the Frenchman maintains his desire to perform in the Tour de France and hunt a strong overall classification result.

"I wouldn't say that I'm the boss of the team, I'm one of the leaders," Gaudu tells Cyclism'Actu, after the team presentation which took place this Wednesday. "We don't perform well in just one type of race. There are the Flandriennes with Stefan and Valentin, the Grand Tours with [Lenny] Martinez, a sprint group which is reforming, [Romain] Grégoire who goes everywhere who will surely win an incredible number of victories. I am leader for the general classification of the Tour but I am not the boss of the team, it is rather a word to be banned."

Over the past three seasons, Gaudu finished 11th, 4th and 9th at the Tour de France. In 2020 he raced the Vuelta a España and won two stages alongside finishing in the Top10 after abandoning the Tour. This season he will combine both. However in France the goal is clear, to improve on last summer's result. “The big goal will be the Tour de France and I will go to the Tour to compete for the general classification, with the desire to progress compared to the year that has passed and not to set a goal precise." Having finished second between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard back in March, Gaudu has shown great potential when at his best level.

"We just want to do things well. We want to be more offensive, to take more risks. The Fantastic 4 (he refers to Pogacar, Vingegaard, Roglic and Eveneoel, ed.) will perhaps run at each other and that will perhaps leave opportunities behind to take time," he believes. "You will have to do your Tour de France, not give up and not necessarily worry about the 'Fantastic 4'."