This season is going far from how the 27-year-old David Gaudu imagined it. Yes, he won the Tour du Jura Classic, however the Groupama-FDJ rider knows farming 1.1 races is beyond his capabilities. Since 2018, Gaudu has never been absent at Grande Boucle and, if things go as planned, this won't change at least for another year, with the Frenchman once again dreaming of a final podium.
"We’re going to take things as they come and try to be more offensive," Gaudu told L'Equipe. "If I’m eighth or ninth at the end of the first week, I hope I’d be able to get in the breaks, even if it means I then crack and drop back to 15th or 20th overall. What I’ve no intention of doing is sitting up and losing time intentionally in the first few days."
Asked whether he had watched the Giro d’Italia and if he felt attracted to it because of the less controlled style of racing, Gaudu admitted the Italian grand tour has its charm. "It’s not necessarily a nicer racer than the Tour, but you can see that it offers more freedom of manoeuvre."
"But the Tour is still the Tour," is what his heart of a proud Frenchman tells Gaudu. "The greatest race in the world, so I should be there, even if it’s more chained down and there are more teams keeping a lid on things. But there are also days where it’s possible to make some moves. That doesn’t happen all the time, but it can happen, if you have the legs and the confidence and the stars align."
Finally, even if there's never been let alone a shadow of doubt, Gaudu reassures his desire to stand on the final podium on Champs-Élysées burns strong as when he was only watching his heroes in the TV as a child. "My dream is to get on the podium in the Tour. My biggest dream would be to win it, but you have to be realistic, that would be very, very complicated,"
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