David Gaudu discussion thread

[skippo12]

Apparently he needs a 150km warmup over multiple Cat 1 climbs to find his legs. Has been dropped or caught behind in a split multiple times. Feels like he is struggling on every single climb in the first half of the stage.
Any explanations? Is he struggling on shallow gradients when big engines like Van Baarle are pushing the pace? Simply needs more time than the rest to find his rhythm?

 

[IndianCyclist]

Number of things, lack of motivation, no warmup, fatigued etc

 

[Big Doopie]

he is not an all-rounder. any normal amount of ITT and he would end up 30 minutes off the podium.

stages and perhaps polka dots should be future goals.

 

[SafeBet]

Apparently he needs a 150km warmup over multiple Cat 1 climbs to find his legs. Has been dropped or caught behind in a split multiple times. Feels like he is struggling on every single climb in the first half of the stage.
Any explanations? Is he struggling on shallow gradients when big engines like Van Baarle are pushing the pace? Simply needs more time than the rest to find his rhythm?

Indeed very odd.
Yesterday he was about to be dropped by 40 riders on Croix Fry, only to be a top7-8 climbers in the final results.
He doesn't strike me as a diesel engine who needs too long to get going so I'm not sure what the problem is. Perhaps a mental thing.

 

[Rob5091]

Indeed very odd.
Yesterday he was about to be dropped by 40 riders on Croix Fry, only to be a top7-8 climbers in the final results.
He doesn't strike me as a diesel engine who needs too long to get going so I'm not sure what the problem is. Perhaps a mental thing.

Yeah, a bit of a come-back kid, could be the crazy fast pace at the start of stages (with a DS shouting in his ear to stay at he front) is a problem, or it could just be "fuelling". Or as he wrote on Twitter that he feels at 100% and yet can not hold on to the other GC riders (insinuating something in other words).

 

[Tonton]

Clinic stuff aside, this is not the Paris-Nice Gaudu so my first reflex is to question the prep'. At the same time, his race calendar was much lighter than '16 Pinot whom he reminds me of. Will David ever win a GT? Unlikely. Podium? He can, like 10 or so riders in today's peloton.

In any case, David Gaudu's Tour is done as far as GC goals are concerned, he'll lose more time in the ITT vs. Rod, Jai, or Adam. Yikes.

 

[movingtarget]

Clinic stuff aside, this is not the Paris-Nice Gaudu so my first reflex is to question the prep'. At the same time, his race calendar was much lighter than '16 Pinot whom he reminds me of. Will David ever win a GT? Unlikely. Podium? He can, like 10 or so riders in today's peloton.

In any case, David Gaudu's Tour is done as far as GC goals are concerned, he'll lose more time in the ITT vs. Rod, Jai, or Adam. Yikes.

He didn't look good pre Tour but his team sounded optimistic that he would improve and he has but not against the best riders. Meintjes probably would have finished in the top 10 if he didn't crash out and you would hope that Gaudu was riding above that level. Simon Yates managed to win a Vuelta and TGH won a Giro but they had both showed more than Gaudu before their wins. Maybe a podium in the future.

 

[Rob5091]

https://www.equipecycliste-groupama...-on-the-attack-david-gaudu-keeps-on-fighting/
"The Groupama-FDJ leader first had a tough start to the race and was even slightly dropped from the bunch in the Col de la Croix Fry, more than fifty kilometres from the finish. “I wasn’t feeling well at all with the heat”, said David. “I was really struggling, like yesterday in the first climbs. I tried not to panic, to take as many water bottles as possible, and we paced ourselves as well as possible with Kevin”."
Heat and fatigue seem to be his problem. Shame for Pinot who's missed out on going for stage wins himself.

 

[movingtarget]

Thought he rode well yesterday.

 

[cen]

How can he lose time randomly in the first half and then finds some magic powers in third week always? Last two days were good. If tour lasted 6 weeks he could have a chance even.

 

[skippo12]

How can he lose time randomly in the first half and then finds some magic powers in third week always? Last two days were good. If tour lasted 6 weeks he could have a chance even.

Worst of the GC guys from the breakaway. Actually lost a spot in the GC. Best stage result but not exactly a great performance.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Well, this Tour has been around his expected level apart from the very weird stages in the second week where he was in trouble very early on.

Yes, you need to bring stage hunters and definitely a sprinter of Démare (if you have such a rider) calibre on a team spearheaded by Gaudu. That was obvious to everyone apart from Madiot and Gaudu himself. Unlucky.

 

[RedheadDane]

He's shaping up to be the only rider in the top-10 without a TdF stage win.

 

[ThisFrenchGuy]

9 in GC is so close yet so far... As it stands now, Pinot possibly getting 11 and Madouas 20 will maybe be a small consolation for FdJ.

 

[Tonton]

9 in GC is so close yet so far... As it stands now, Pinot possibly getting 11 and Madouas 20 will maybe be a small consolation for FdJ.

With Il Giro in his legs, Thibaut is the strongest rider in his team. David got stronger towards the end, that's a sign of bad prep', timing, the team will need to figure it out. I hope that he recovers quickly from that nasty fall.

David Gaudu is having a bad night tonight.

 

[RedheadDane]

When he crashed, I feared for his further participation in the Tour.

 

[Red Rick]

Pinot's solo ride on Petit Ballon was better than Gaudu's entire Tour

 

[RedheadDane]

Pinot's solo ride on Petit Ballon was better than Gaudu's entire Tour

Must have been some rather mixed feelings in the FDJ camp those moments.

 

[Rackham]

Gaudu's problem is the Tour this year was quickly identified by FDJ & himself as very favorable in terms of route because of the lack of ITT km's.

The fact he finished over 20 minutes down is not good. I have no idea what's in Stefan Küng's contract but he's the sort of rider who shouldn't be constrained working for someone like Gaudu who has huge limitations. 7 riders in support of Gaudu was basically just Madiot & the team sponsor projecting massive wishful thinking about a French rider on the podium.

When he crashed, I feared for his further participation in the Tour.

When he crashed, everyone suddenly breathed a sigh of relief when they realized it wasn't Pinot who'd hit the deck. I mean that's how much Gaudu's Tour sucked. It was his defining moment tbh.

 

[Bolder]

Gaudu was not alone in failing to achieve expectations. Landa, the entire UnoX, Astana, EF and Movistar teams, Alaf, MvdP, Wout, Ghirmay/Meintjes, a bunch of others...sure, there were some crashes etc, but outside of JV, Pog, Gall and the Yates boys, there were some serious underperformances.

My early take is that the superhard first week put a lot of riders into the weeds who normally might have "ridden into shape" in an easier starting week. UAE and JV brought some really strong teams and they were well prepared for the Pyrenees.

In hindsight of course FDJ should have just taken Demare and raced for a sprint/breakaway win, and let Gaudu and Pinot ride for themselves.

I still think Gaudu can podium a GT but he's kind of poisoned the well with his spat with Demare. Next year, maybe L.Mart and he can try some different tactics.

 

[Monte Serra]

Gaudu was not alone in failing to achieve expectations. Landa, the entire UnoX,

I don't think that's fair to Tobias Halland Johannessen. He was 3rd in the stage over the Tourmalet, 5th in the stage Izagirre won, 6th in the stage over the Col de la Loze, and 9th yesterday. That's a pretty solid set of results in some very competitive stages.

 

[Bolder]

I don't think that's fair to Tobias Halland Johannessen. He was 3rd in the stage over the Tourmalet, 5th in the stage Izagirre won, 6th in the stage over the Col de la Loze, and 9th yesterday. That's a pretty solid set of results in some very competitive stages.

You're right, that's pretty good, but I think they were hoping for a stage win. He was always there or thereabouts, as they say.

 

[Pinot's goat]

Unless there is 100km of ITT, the only sensible decision is Giro/Vuelta next year. He should consider Vuelta this year as well.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Gaudu was not alone in failing to achieve expectations. Landa, the entire UnoX, Astana, EF and Movistar teams, Alaf, MvdP, Wout, Ghirmay/Meintjes, a bunch of others...sure, there were some crashes etc, but outside of JV, Pog, Gall and the Yates boys, there were some serious underperformances.

Kind of hard on Astana, EF, and Movistar as well when their leaders crashed out.

 

[RedheadDane]

Kind of hard on Astana, EF, and Movistar as well when their leaders crashed out.

And I'd say Uno-X did quite well, considering that it's not a big team.