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OPINION | David Gaudu should forget about the Tour de France GC

Cycling
by Rúben Silva
Friday, 12 January 2024 at 13:00
1096940428
Groupama - FDJ announced that David Gaudu will ride the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana this season. I think the general manager of the team Marc Madiot will want from Gaudu the best possible GC result, but I hope he will not think about targeting the GC. Here is why.
This opinion article has been written by Lukáš Ronald Lukács.    
Too many contenders
We have Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogačar, Primoz Roglič, Remco Evenepoel, Adam Yates, Simon Yates, Sepp Kuss, Tao Geoghegan Hart, João Almeida, Juan Ayuso, Enric Mas, Richard Carapaz, Pello Bilbao, Carlos Rodriguez, Felix Gall, Tom Pidcock. All potentially targeting the Tour de France. Maybe Gaudu can repeat last year’s 9th place, but I don’t think it is worth it to sacrifice everything for it. It would be just another Tour Top 10 for him.

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David Gaudu: "You will have to do your Tour de France, not give up and not necessarily worry about the 'Fantastic 4'"David Gaudu: "You will have to do your Tour de France, not give up and not necessarily worry about the 'Fantastic 4'"
0 Tour de France stage wins yet
Despite having multiple World Tour wins and also 4th overall at the Tour de France David Gaudu has never won a stage at the Tour de France. And for a Frenchman, it would be really precious. And he can achieve this only if he does not target the GC and jump to the breakaways.
Polka dot jersey
Why not go also for a polka dot jersey then just a stage wins? Until now no rider made this jersey a goal for this year's Tour de France and David Gaudu has the all abilities to do well in the hunt of the polka dots.

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"When Jonas really broke through, something changed for Primoz" - Team Visma | Lease a Bike DS knew it would be difficult to keep Roglic onboard"When Jonas really broke through, something changed for Primoz" - Team Visma | Lease a Bike DS knew it would be difficult to keep Roglic onboard
More entertaining the people
Riding always just to limit the losses is not the most precious thing that people admire about cyclists. That’s why Enric Mas is not that popular among the fans. But if he would rather go to the breakaways, attack the stage wins, he will be more on the screen and also he will be a bigger hero among the fans.
Be fresher to Vuelta
As I mentioned above David Gaudu plans to ride also the La Vuelta. And here he will have a much bigger chance in the GC than at the Tour. From the big 4 only Vingegaard will go and besides that not too many big contenders.

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Merijn Zeeman aware that Team Visma | Lease a Bike dominance degrades it's popularity: "You will then have to deal with more suspicions. And then the popularity decreases"Merijn Zeeman aware that Team Visma | Lease a Bike dominance degrades it's popularity: "You will then have to deal with more suspicions. And then the popularity decreases"
Remco Evenepoel still a step below the competition according to Cyrille Guimard: "He cannot race with Pogacar and Vingegaard"Remco Evenepoel still a step below the competition according to Cyrille Guimard: "He cannot race with Pogacar and Vingegaard"
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