Critérium du Dauphiné – A “puffed up” Wout van Aert and David Gaudu watches the rest with appetite

“Before he raised his arms, I had already passed him”, assures the 25-year-old Frenchman, who took advantage of the final 8% ramp to let his puncher-climber legs speak, at the top of the Chastreix-Sancy climb. But for that, he had to sneak like a sprinter. “I was a bit far, I said to myself: ‘It’s not going to do it’. Then 500 meters away, I see Kevin [Geniets] who returns and I take his wheelhe says. When it throws, I’m a bit locked in…but I felt I had strength and I put it all in..”

In front of him, Van Aert struggled to pass Victor Lafay (3rd) and was only wary of the Cofidis runner on his left. The Gaudu rocket will pass to his right. “I see I’m back in Wout’s aspiration [van Aert] and I say to myself: ‘I’m going to eat it, I’m going to eat it’ and finally… I manage to eat it“, continues the leader of Groupama-FDJ, still in the euphoria, just after the race. He holds his ninth success in pro and this materializes the end of a bad period.

David Gaudu had started the year 2022 well, raising his arms on his second day of racing during the Tour of the Algarve. But since this pleasure of the month of February, he has accumulated setbacks. A Paris-Nice truncated due to a fall which bruised his back. A Tour of the Basque Country which confirmed that he still needed a rest. A campaign of Ardennes classics zapped due to illness, while he remained on a podium in Liège (3rd in 2021). Here is the recipe for the soup with grimace.

The victory he has been looking for “since the beginning of the year”

Long live the mountains?

It is especially in the mountains, during the last two stages, that David Gaudu wants to gauge himself. “It promises for the future, the legs seemed to respond rather well on the climb so it will be heading for this weekend“, he projects himself thus, aware that the final ascent of the day, with its 6.2 km at 5.6%, represents only an appetizer.

And what about the time trial then? 32 terminals long, almost devoid of relief, it is not cut out for David Gaudu. But it takes more to demoralize him and he has progress (glimpsed at the start of the season) to be confirmed in the exercise: “I can test myself. This is going to be pretty cool.” Cool, like him, approaching the biggest goal of his season, which he can finally consider calmly.