"I'm happy to go riding and to hurt myself" - David Gaudu ready to make France proud in 2025

David Gaudu is one of the riders in the peloton with the most pressure on him. He’s a French rider, in a French team, with a country behind him that are desperate to taste success again at the Tour de France.

This year, the 28 year old struggled at the Tour de France, and finished just 65th in GC. This was a bad showing for Groupama – FDJ, in their first Tour without the people’s champion, Thibat Pinot. But, Gaudu bounced back at the Vuelta a Espana, where he finished 6th in the GC, his best performance in a grand tour since he came 4th at the Tour de France in 2022.

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Speaking to Cyclism’Actu, Gaudu said, "I had 87 days of racing, which is my biggest season. There were so many ups and downs, even just at the start of the season. I was still able to raise my arms, but then the Dauphiné-Tour de France sequence, with the COVID before the Tour, it was extremely complicated.

"From the end of the Tour I had the knife between my teeth,” he reflected. “Often I get up, I sleep, I talk, I ride for the Tour de France, but this was the same for La Vuelta. I had a great Vuelta and then I managed to raise my arms in Luxembourg and I finished well in Italy on the Tour of Lombardy. I was able to find myself at the end of the season."

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"The team needs me 100%. I've been through a lot of difficult things. It's part of a career unfortunately, you have to go through it. But I think that having managed to recover from that at the end of the season, it allows me to move on to a new level, even in my life as a man.”

The Frenchman seems positive about his strong finished to 2024, but believes here is more to come next season. “I'm happy in my life, I'm happy to take my bike, to go riding and to hurt myself. See you in 2025.”