"I wasn't going to go to the Tour every year for my entire career" - Despite pressure, David Gaudu temporarily halts Tour de France GC dream

The French have not won a Tour de France since the 1980's and it has been 30 years since it's last Grand Tour win. For a nation with such cycling culture, tradition, stars (both in the past and present) and the one who hosts the biggest race in the world, this all comes as a big surprise. David Gaudu has previously suffered from this pressure being the country's current best Grand Tour specialist, but in 2025 for the first time in years he puts his main focus elsewhere.

"It's true that I experienced a bit of everything last season... when I thought I was at my lowest, I experienced even lower times. But I've always been able to get back up and move forward," Gaudu said in an interview with Cyclism'Actu. "And it's this perseverance that allowed me to achieve this end of the season, to start again on solid foundations for the 2025 season".

In 2023 he snuck between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard on the podium of Paris-Nice, and that was after a year where he finished fourth at the Tour. It could be France's next big hope, but the year then did not go so well. In 2024 the same was visible and he was nowhere near his best form at the Tour. However he managed to bounce back in an unlikely yet impressive way.

He finished sixth at the Vuelta a España but in the mountains he managed to once again show his best level, and then managed to take a convincing win at the Tour de Luxembourg that came at a good timing. But racing the Tour for a higher GC than 4th as he's done in the past is not realistic currently, specially as Groupama - FDJ fall further and further from the top teams that increase their budget and climber lineups every year. Instead, he makes his Giro d'Italia debut with his eye on a possible pink jersey.

"I wasn't going to go to the Tour every year for my entire career! I also wanted to discover the Giro, we discussed it with the sports management," he explains. "Guillaume [Martin]'s arrival made things easier, because he will be 100% on the Tour. Together, we are stronger and we will go further. We know the armadas that are on the Tour..."

"For my part, I will approach the Tour differently from other years, I will not compete for the general classification. I will rather race like Guillaume did, sometimes losing time and then making up time on breakaways, with the aim of playing for a stage victory," he explains.

Of course, it came after some disappointments from the French crowd. "That's how it is, it's part of the game. A French leader in a French team, of course... I accept it, and I accept everything that has happened, all the failures and what I have managed to undertake. Now, it's behind me, I am focused on 2025 with new races, a new dynamic and new objectives, that's what drives me now. I think that, despite everything, all these difficult episodes have toughened me up even more. Even if my 2024 Tour is an absolute failure, it's what allowed me to achieve this end of the season."

Now Gaudu is fresh and motivated to hunt strong results once again, and has revealed his 2025 calendar which includes several races early in the year where he can realistically aim for a victory, before racing Strade Bianche and Tirreno-Adriatico; to then begin his specific preparation for the Giro d'Italia.

"From January during the training camps, I will be at altitude in Tenerife at Teide, then I will leave a little before the end for a training camp in hypoxia, to work on the time-trial and other specificities that I cannot work on there. After that, I will discover the Muscat Classic, the Tour of Oman, the Strade Bianche and Tirreno-Adriatico, with a stopover in the [Classic] Var in between near home. I will then go on a training course at a time when I have never done a training course, before returning to Romandie and then discovering the Giro," he concluded.