David Gaudu: "You will have to do your Tour de France, not give up and not necessarily worry about the 'Fantastic 4'"
Cycling
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'."
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A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
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Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
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- Yeah, unreal.
parisbound0008-11-2026 - there needs to be space in life for pointless comments!Ketterechts08-11-2026
- That is a very lazy way of putting it but so far on this website it seems like everyone is happy to look at everything lazily, even things that annoy them intensely. All they want to do is state their feeling and position but ask most to analyse a problem or come up with solutions or improvements and you’re stunned by silence. Nobody even really knows how this all happens. It’s very simple and quick to just say the UCI did it but I bet you they didn’t, I bet you not more than 2 people were involved, more likely just 1. The UCI may be ultimately responsible but it is not their decision, this is about hierarchy, power and delegation. The fact that protest is possible also means it isn’t over and that MORE people could get involved for a thorough review which could throw up anything. It is highly likely it was a sole commissar who decided and has that power in a first round. Therein might lie the problem the UCI has to consider, is it acceptable to give so much authority to one single person when it is quite possible for them to have a natural bias or be too easily susceptible to imposed bias. Who is to say an individual in this position isn’t susceptible to collaboration with outside players with interests in the results, nations, families, teams, betting companies, etc. On the one hand we have sports where these problems have been worked on way more to reduce such problems, on the other hand we have sports with far stricter and more draconian rules not even concerning safety or obstruction that nobody really questions like false starts or stepping out of lane or zones in athletics. If cycling hastowork on itself, it would be good if protagonists (all kinds) would start doing a little more than just moaning over outcomes.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Yes, so why not make comments less pointless?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- What a race! I didn't expect Vanthourenhout to collapse like that, and Wyseure did take the fight to Nys, but there was no doubt at the end. I also wonder what Aubin Sparfel would be capable of were he to race in the elites now. In the U23 ranks he is making good work of Giel Lejeune, who himself is among the better riders in the elites, and a top 10 contender in the big races (3rd at Kleebergcross, 8th at Berencross and 5th at Heerderstrand). In the French Cup, Sparfel is significantly better than Romain Debord (8th at Koppenbergcross and 10th at the Euros) and Rémi Lelandais (12th at Koppenbergcross and 19th at the Euros).
Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - There really was nothing in it. Schreiber was so much faster, and Brand was fighting to stay in the wheel in the sprint. Schreiber did move a bit, but to say she closed the door doesn't make sense because Brand couldn't enter it anyway, abd she wasn't impeded.Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026
- He should have been allowed to go to Movistar. Right now both arent a good fit for each other and are just wasting each other's time and effortabstractengineer08-11-2026
- Thibau Nys does exactly what Iserbyt is calling forRafionain-Glas08-11-2026
- i did not see it. was the relegation justified or an overly hard decision? and don‘t cross riders deviate from straight lines all the time? bumping into each others when they cut corners, etc … why being more strict with the rules on the finish sprint?Ketterechts08-11-2026
- seems like we are advertising the website with pointless comments…Ketterechts08-11-2026
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Double ration de Grand Tour pour David Gaudu en 2024 : 🇫🇷 + 🇪🇸 « 𝑅𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑐 𝑙𝑎 𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑖𝑟𝑒, 𝑒̂𝑡𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑒̀𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑢𝑟 𝑙𝑒 𝑇𝑜𝑢𝑟, 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑒 »
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