The first GC rider to confirm his Grand Tour schedule for 2025? "I would like to go to the Giro and win a stage in the Tour" David Gaudu confirms
Cycling
David Gaudu is a rider with plenty ups and downs in his short career. After a difficult end to 2023 and a 2024 that brought very little until August - his Tour de France was quite disappointing as well - the Groupama-FDJ found his best legs again at the Vuelta a España and is once again eager to start a new season with new goals for the Grand Tours which he has confirmed having in sights.
In April Gaudu took his first win in almost two years at the Tour du Jura, but that was until recently the highlight of his 2024 season. He started the 2024 Tour ambitious but was nowhere near his best form - as was the case with teammate Lenny Martínez - but reported at the end of the race that he still had a lot in the tank to focus on the end of the seson.
“I woke up in the morning without the feeling that I had just done the Tour. I was of course physically tired, but mentally absolutely not. The day after the Tour, I realized very well that only the Vuelta could save my season. Nobody wants to have an empty season. When I woke up, I was already in Vuelta mode," Gaudu said in a post shared by the team.
That was potentially what saved his year. "At that moment I took a step back. I felt that I was on the right track, that it was promising, but you always have to be careful. That said, from the start of the stage, the next day, I noticed that my legs were doing very well. I didn't know how long I would be able to keep that shape, but in the end it took a long time".
The 28-year old didn't start off the Spanish Grand Tour with great legs but slowly rose up the ranks and entered the Top10 by stage 15. He grew stronger and stronger as the race progressed, coming second to Primoz Roglic at the Alto de Moncalvillo, and entering the final time-trial in the Top5. He finished the race in sixth place, his best Grand Tour result since the 2022 Tour de France where he finished fourth.
This, combined with another stage win at the Tour de Luxembourg later in the year, see Gaudu freshly motivated to chase big wins at the top races. “I still want to be as high as possible in the rankings and win races. Raising your arms is still the best thing that can happen to a rider. More specifically, I would like to go to the Giro and win a stage in the Tour," he reveals.
He joked about this rekindling of his career being related to his new hairstyle, quite popular amongst fans over the last few months: "It's quite funny, but the long-hair project started at the beginning of May. It just took a while for it to grow. In the end it was almost too long compared to what I had imagined, but from the moment I managed to tie it back properly, I left it like that. You could almost say: a new look for a new career.”
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💬 « Je suis revenu sur la trajectoire que j’avais tracée »
— Équipe Cycliste Groupama-FDJ (@GroupamaFDJ) December 5, 2024
Entretien de fin de saison avec David Gaudu. L'occasion pour le Breton de fermer le livre d'une saison 2024 vécue comme un chapitre important de sa carrière.https://t.co/Y8g5nWuVlO
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- Okay, so I completely agree that cycling history has shown that gains like these have ALWAYS been fueled by doping. However, personally in this case, I really don't care. Why, because this kid is so damn nice and fun and has been a positive force in cycling. Unlike Lance, who didn't care about anyone but Lance. Am I positive he is doing? No, and I'm happy to give him the benefit of doubt because he is such a fun kid.dabman13-01-2025
- no kidding. i remember when the pro peloton had the really edgy, nasty tone to it. many will want to blame armstrong for that but it went back WAAAYYYY before him. hinault presided over a culture like that, too, and others before him. it really sucked because amateur racers would emulate the pros and when i got into the sport i remember thinking “wow, bicycle racers are the biggest a**holes on the planet.” i’m not sure what caused the pro culture to change, but that change has been cemented by the greats of the sport — pogacar, van der poel, van aert, on and on — being great SPORTSMEN who are much more inclined to congratulate than hate each other. some may miss the old “get your hate on” days. i do not.OCexile12-01-2025
- Honestly, it's not just ProTeams that are arguing this: so are fans like me. I'd love to see more feisty teams struggling for points going at it against each other. I'd love to see a Cancellara team and a Contador team (what happened to them?!) up against the biggies. I'd love to see more wins like Castrillo in the Vuelta (his first was fun, his second was great!). But I also recognize that the two tier system requires that some teams fear a loss of benefit, and others seek a gain of benefit. If everyone has the benefit, is it as important to compete for it? Cycling is weird, that's my conclusion.RidesHills12-01-2025
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- Pretty much true but then again it’s far too early, they need at least 5 years of meetings, travel and lunches to talk it through ;-) Besides, it would be near impossible to create rules and punishment for going too fast, who would decide how and when and for which rider(s)?Mistermaumau12-01-2025
- Yeah, that would be funny, as long as it doesn’t backfire and we have to wait 20 years to read about it in someone’s autobiography ;-) At least they’re not having a public go at each other like so often in the 100m sprint in athletics or Kerr and Ingebrigtsen.Mistermaumau12-01-2025
- This narrative of blaming the rider or the bicycle setup needs to stop. The issue is that the UCI has done nothing to improve the safety of the courses or punish the race organisers for the poor setup of course routes. Instead, the UCI has encouraged this alternative narrative of blaming others - need proof? UCI did nothing to punish the race organisers after the devastating crash at Itzulia Basque Country. Need more proof? UCI did nothing to improve the safety of sprint finishes after the life-changing crash of Fabio Jakobsen in Poland.Pogboom12-01-2025
- for all i know Merlier and Wout are besties and Tim just thought it would be really funny to needle his buddy — “OMG, he’s so much faster than Wout its crazy!” WTF do any of us ever know, really.OCexile12-01-2025
- But no-one is interested in slower, many would like safer so unless they can show that e.g. youth races are safer, it IS useless. It’d be more efficient to electronically limit everyone’s power output at steep gradients (down of course) or specified sections, am sure technically it isn’t that complicated or expensive but there’d be an outcry so forget it.Mistermaumau12-01-2025
- Agreed, as said here and has been superficially discussed before, it is the whole peleton and race that has gotten faster, the very best like these three, are still only winning by the same margins as elsewhere in history, they haven’t discovered any new distinguishing product. I mean, if an ageing Cavendish, Thomas and others can still deliver sometimes, nothing much can be going on.Mistermaumau12-01-2025