Less than a week ago, David Gaudu was almost bedridden. In the wake of a Critérium du Dauphiné from which he had emerged satisfied, not necessarily on the raw result (15th overall) but on the sensations after a tough training camp in Spain, the Breton was the victim of an old acquaintance, affected by covid-19.
Result: no French road championship and the last few days of preparation were cut short. “Between fatigue and headaches, it was a complicated period,” he admits. “I hardly rode at all, a few short outings to stretch my legs, but I mostly rested. That was all there was to do.” So much so that he even “considered” not taking part, before being reassured by the last medical examinations. “If I wasn’t fit, I wouldn’t have come,” he says.
“I don’t make any plans”
It was therefore with extreme caution that the Breton opened the page of his seventh Tour de France, Thursday in front of the press, in a cozy hotel in the Florentine suburbs. With his long, slicked-back hair overhanging his face as sharp as ever, David Gaudu did not hide the fact that the illness had seriously compromised his ambitions in the general classification. “I am entering the unknown but with desire,” sums up the 27-year-old climber. But faced with the maddening density of contenders that is expected, between the aliens who take everything (Vingegaard, Pogacar, Roglic, Evenepoel) and the long-toothed outsiders (Adam and Simon Yates, Rodriguez, Almeida), the desire risks not enough and it seems difficult to imagine the Finistère, 4th in 2022 and 9th in 2023, able to play with the big names.
This does not discourage the person concerned, however, who promises to give it a try in the first stages. “I’m really waiting to see my level. I don’t make any plans. I just know I’m going to have to hold on like I’ve never held on before. And I know how to do that! “. “In the evening of Valloire and Galibier (4th stage), we will know more,” adds its sports director, Vannetais Benoît Vaugrenard.
High morale
And if the test was not conclusive and David Gaudu was forced to give up time from the start, he would then fall back on other objectives, within a team programmed to go for the stage victory that he has been missing since 2019. “I wouldn’t say that I’ve come to terms with it, but I know that it can go badly or very well. Mentally, I’m ready to accept it and fight every day until I have nothing left. But I still hope to have good legs this weekend!”
So, if the words are not necessarily reassuring and the physical state probably leaves something to be desired, the man seems calm. “Morale is very good,” even assures David Gaudu. It’s part of the ups and downs in a career. I have already shown this year that I can quickly get back to the level. A top athlete always gets back up. » So far, he hasn’t even fallen.
