Cycling: David Goudou highlights his FDJ partner Arnaud Demar on social media

The exchange is dated January 20, six days ago. A certain “David Gaudu” is chatting on the Discord platform with Internet users about his goals for 2023. Yes, this is the real David Gaudou, French climber, fourth in the last Tour de France. The latter is a fan of video games and interacts regularly with his fans. Only now, at the end of the day, the discussion, which, as he knows, is public, nevertheless turns to settling scores and to a big dumpling.

“I don’t want him to come to the Tour de France”, “The war is not over yet (sic) / we are on a crusade / The advantage is that we do not talk to each other and we do not ride or almost together” . Here is a summary of the remarks made that day by David Goudou. Every time he targets the same person: sprinter Arnaud Demar, his fellow Groupama-FDJ. Reportedly, we quickly realize that the relationship between these two tricolor bike figures is icy and even pernicious. Breton, 26, criticizes the presence of a five-year-old sprinter at a training camp in the Canary Islands this week: “He wants to be selected for the Tour. But this is not a victory (…) Let him stay at home. »

The matter could not stop there. These surges in recent hours have ended up on Twitter, a much stronger resonator. Once again, David Gaudou was aware of this risk, as the exchanges show. And on the night of Thursday to Friday, he eventually apologized to a colleague and his entire team. “Problems the team may have had to remain internal (sic), I apologize to the team and Arnaud,” he wrote at first, drawing on screenshots of the controversy. He then posted a more solemn statement on his Twitter account, repeating the same elements.

“They have already been yelled at! »

If Arnaud Demar did not react publicly, he was well aware of the coming storm. When asked by Sud-Ouest, manager Marc Madio did not elaborate on four ways he managed to deal with this internal squabble. What if they are yelled at? But they’ve already been yelled at! rocked Mayenne. “They’re not friends, okay. And me, my job is to make them work together, that’s all. And they say what they want when they’re with their friends, fine, but not on social media. »

The French team did not need this to start the season. The context is very specific, since this is the farewell tour of Thibaut Pinault, who announced his retirement at the end of the year, in early January. This transitional phase promises to be even more difficult if the two new leaders cannot agree on a bike and abandon it. According to David Goudou, having Netflix cameras on the team would have made the atmosphere even harder.

Can they coexist on the Tour de France?

In any case, the two men are still expected to take part in a certain number of races together. Starting from Paris-Nice (March 5-12), as Marc Madio confirmed. But obviously the Tour de France is of most interest, as their potential cohabitation requires cooperation in good intelligence.

David Goudou is logically aiming for the podium after his performances last summer. As for Desmarais, he wants to return there after his prestigious Giro successes (three stage wins in 2022 and the best sprinter jersey). There are currently two successes (Vittel 2017 and Pau 2018).

“We will see in what conditions we present ourselves at the start with the team,” Goudou said in October at the presentation of the next Grand Boucle course. Hopefully it will be the same as last summer.” In other words, a team 100% GP oriented and with no sprinter window…

Demar doesn’t think so. According to him, there is room for both purposes. “My presence won’t make much of a difference for David (Goudou), I’ll be a little bonus,” he said in January, ready to fight without the help of the train around him. Mark Madiot will now do everything to ensure that the “small bonus” does not turn into a big pebble in the shoe.