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

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.

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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.

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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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