“Learning to manage the nervousness of a leader”, David Gaudu displays his ambitions for 2022

The lighthouse in the dark night, the flashlight in the cellar. David Gaudu will have been, in 2021, one of the rare satisfactions of Groupama-FDJ. Despite a Tour de France tainted by a failure of those that we are very happy not to experience on the other side of the screen, the French rider had his moments: a stage victory over the Basque Country, a third place in Liège (just ahead of his idol Valverde) and three Top 10s in the Italian classics in the fall.

Last year will also have been that of the discovery of the status of leader on the Tour de France. A role that he is not sure of finding with the return to the fore of Thibaut Pinot and the emergence of rookie Michael Storer. But Gaudu is ready to fight, in joy and good humor. Coolos interview.

What explains the ambient enthusiasm around the team despite the somewhat disappointing previous year?

When you get out of a bad season like that, you always question yourself and the year after you often come back with envy. We tell ourselves that we have fallen on a bone, we are resentful. We want to do well. Thibaut went riding and sun, Valentin too, Stephan too. Arnaud rode in the South of France, me too. It did us all good.

Individually, however, you have described this year as your best. Beyond the results, what are you satisfied with?

What I really liked was my consistency all year round, from Haut-Var at the start of the season to Lombardy, via the Basque Country/Ardennes block, the Dauphiné and even the Tour despite this Ventoux stage . There are still nice things to take away from it, like the fact of having been able to be with the best at the highest level all season or almost. Finally, I didn’t miss much to play in front of certain races. And I saw that when I was really at 100% of my abilities, running well and having a bit of luck, I manage to win great races and get podiums on monuments. It gives me extra motivation, I want to see how far I can go. This season gave me the fangs because now I just want to win.

You had an iconic moment in 2021 on the tour of the Basque Country with this breakaway with Primoz Roglic. The opportunity to learn things alongside one of the bosses of the peloton and to make a friend in high places?

It is clear that it is better to have more friends than enemies in the peloton. What I learned from that day was about me and my abilities, the blocks I could do before. I showed myself that over a week I was capable of competing with the world’s best.

Did you have complexes?

Before ? A little, yeah. A few years ago, I was still wondering if I was capable of reaching that level, of being like them. Finally, even if I take longer than some runners, I’m going to reach maturity and I hope to do good things.

Do you feel that the look of the peloton vis-à-vis you is starting to change, that you are considered a little more?

I’m more watched, they’re not going to let me out or take time on certain stages in breakaways, unless I’m far overall. If I’m four or five minutes away, they’re not going to let me take a breakaway and get closer to 30 seconds overall.

It’s a bit boring, but rewarding at the same time?

Yes, it’s a bit boring but rewarding, that’s exactly it.

Marc Madiot said that each rider had a moment to do his self-criticism of the previous season. What was yours?

There isn’t necessarily much to say about the season except that I was perhaps too nervous in certain races. I would have to gain patience and calm. I think that on the Tour I was too nervous on certain stages, and it cost me energy for afterwards. We will have to learn to manage that.

The status of leader weighed on you?

It was a new thing to understand but I think it was above all that I had a lot of desire. I wanted to do well and I left a lot of cartridges in nervousness. I didn’t always make the right choices.

You mentioned your arrival at maturity a little later than for other runners. Where are you in this progress?

I’ve always progressed in a linear way and that’s what I expect again this year. To stay at the top level you always have to progress, there is no longer the right to stay on your achievements. I did a mental reset. Ok that’s good, I made a top 20 at the UCI in 2021 but here we are starting from scratch. New season, the opponents will progress, new faces will arrive in the peloton. We will have to progress to stay at the top level.

Where do you stand or compared to the great leaders of the peloton?

Pogaçar and Roglic are above. Then there are the champions like the Yates, Lopez, Bernal etc. I would say that I am just below. At the top of the third level, let’s say (laughs). But it happens to me to go up on the second!

The main line of the presentation of the season for Groupama-FDJ is that there is no leader for the moment. We can imagine that Thibaut, Storer and you will struggle a bit to find out who will lead the team on the Tour?

I know that relations with Thibaut and even, from what little we have seen, with Storer, will be without animosity or aggressiveness towards the main objectives of the season. We go to the Tour to perform. We won’t let it go in the first week and in the mountains we want to be conquerors by showing our collective strength.

Is there the idea of ​​operating like the big teams in the peloton, with several strong riders and strong team members?

This is what we have to manage to show, that we are not the little thumb. We must try to move those who would like to look down on us. We don’t want to be faced with armadas like Ineos, Jumbo or UAE. We want to show that we are there and that we want to hurt them. It’s always hard to occupy space against these teams because they are made up of riders who have a double role like Van Baarle or Van Aert, riders capable of riding on the flat and also of climbing passes and to be there in week three when there are 20 guys left in the peloton. They are runners who have a bit of two sides.

How daunting are these guys?

In the peloton, when we are in pain, we wonder who is hurting us. “Ah, it’s Van Baarle. Who is left? Kwiatkowski, Geogeghan Hart, etc. (laughs). We see that there are four team members behind and we say to ourselves “well… I’m all alone” or there are only two of us left. Of course it’s complicated. That’s why we align a collective force, because we all pull ourselves up.

Is it also safe to go on the Tour with several cartridges precisely because of the first week? Wind, cobblestones, the mountain… Is it a bit Mario Kart?

We won’t be able to play for all these cards either. If we try to play two cards in the first step and one guy ends up in the second border and another in the third border, in the end we won’t have anyone. Better to have someone on the right edge on the first day and be sure. The first week will be tough and tricky and I don’t think any of the leaders, even the most ambitious, will be confident in the first week.

Precisely, what do the cobblestones inspire in you in the first week?

I think they weren’t necessarily necessary for the Tour (laughs). There will already be enough show before with the wind. It’s putting back a lot of risk and when you see all the falls, abandonments and all the runners in the hospital last year in three days on small roads, it’s not the most fun thing either. It’s like that, we are runners, it’s our job. We will have to go to coal, we have no choice.