“He knows that I don’t want him at the Tour”- Tensions between Groupama-FDJ biggest stars David Gaudu and Arnaud Démare revealed on comments leaked on Twitter

The 2 main riders of Groupama-FDJ seem to be with problems between them. David Gaudu the main climber, of the team and Arnaud Démare the number one sprinter, the main discord appears to be the presence of Arnaud Démare at the Tour. Since Gaudu doesn't want the lather there, preferring to have a team focused fully on him for the general classification of the race.

“The war is not over. We are on a crusade. The advantage is that we don’t talk to each other, and we hardly ride together. If he wants me to tell him to his face, I can very well. I’m not afraid of him. He knows that I don’t want him at the Tour, I already told him”, said Gaudu on comments latter leaked on Twitter at the Discord app, a week ago.

The relationships between the French compatriots and main figures of the team appears to be going throw difficult times and this can definitely affect the team spirit and cohesion. The fact is that they really don't race much at the same races. Last year they were only lineup teammates at Bretagne Classic and in 2021 they both raced the Tour, meaning that the problems between the 2 might already have some background.

Later, after the comment's leakage, David Gaudu took to Twitter apologizing for his comments, “My remarks should never have been made in a public setting. I apologized to the team and to Arnaud”, he stated.

The Groupama-FDJ board hasn't made yet a public statement about this situation, neither revealed their Tour de France expected lineup. But with these conflicts, that appear to be genuine, among their riders, the team management led by Marc Madiot is with a problem at their team core that needs to be solved as soon as possible.