Three weeks after withdrawing from Paris-Nice, David Gaudu returned to racing on Friday in his homelands of Brittany. On the Route Adélie de Vitré, seventh round of the FDJ French Cup, the climber from Groupama-FDJ displayed good condition. Aggressive in the final and trying to make a difference, he eventually got beaten in the sprint and took fourth place of the day. He’ll now head to the Tour of the Basque Country.
Before the second Monument of the year monopolizes everyone’s eyes this weekend, the FDJ French Cup’s calendar was on the menu this Friday with the seventh round in Vitré, in Brittany. The usual route was awaiting the riders, with a large loop of twenty kilometers to be completed five times, and the final circuit of nine kilometres to be repeated eight times. The whole race took place on a challenging route, with the Côte de la Chênelière (900m at 5%) in every lap, and a slight uphill finish. “In case of a sprint, we had Marc Sarreau and Noah Hobbs,” explained Thierry Bricaud. “The team was almost the same as in Paris-Camembert, but with David making his comeback. The goal was for him to make efforts and get good feelings back for the rest of the season.” First of all, after twenty kilometers of fighting, the peloton only let Mathis Le Berre and Paul Hennequin take the lead. The duo however didn’t get a big gap, and their lead was only one minute at the start of the local circuits, with seventy kilometres to go. The wind first made the peloton nervous, David Gaudu even opened up some echelons, but the breakaway was finally caught five laps from the finish, and everything came back together. A new race started right away, ten riders or so went away, then some ten others joined them on the côte de Chênelière, including David Gaudu.
“I tried to ride as smart as possible”, David Gaudu
“It was quite a fast race, and the team positioned me well in every lap,” said the Frenchman. “When the proper fight started, I managed to get back to the right group at the last minute.” “David was not taken by surprise, and he came back quickly,” Thierry added. “Once he was in front, the idea was to let the teams with numbers do the work, get closer to the last two laps, then to try to reduce this group a bit.” Although the bunch never lost more than forty seconds, it nevertheless never managed to close the gap. With two laps to go, there was still half a minute between the two groups, as a first selection was about to take place in the breakaway. Following an acceleration from David Gaudu, only eleven riders found themselves in the lead, and the Breton then faced a few attacks. “I had good feelings all day, I tried to ride as smart as possible, and it wasn’t easy in the final with several teams having two riders,” added David. “I shouldn’t jump on everyone. It was difficult but I managed not to get trapped, and the best way to avoid that at the end was also to go on the attack and try to isolate everyone.” After the bell rang to announce the last lap, the riders got the Côte de Chênelière for the final time, and the Groupama-FDJ leader once again tried to get rid of his rivals.
“David took confidence for the future”, Thierry Bricaud
After several accelerations, only two riders were left in his wheel at the top: Alexandre Delettre and Jordan Labrosse. “He made a lot of effort, he was for sure one of the strongest, but it wasn’t too hard, so we couldn’t make a big difference,” explained Thierry Bricaud. In the last five kilometers leading to Vitré, the trio tried to stay away from the rest of the breakaway, only a few seconds behind. “David worked with them, he rode hard, and even if he’s not 100%, he’s still David Gaudu so the others are careful,” Thierry added. “I think his break companions saved a bit of energy, but that can be understood. He played it well for the sprint, unfortunately the gap was not made with the rest of the breakaway.” Although the three leading riders entered the final uphill straight with a slight advantage, Jenthe Biermans and Sandy Dujardin came back fast from behind to grab the first two places. Alexandre Delettre held off David Gaudu to complete the podium. “They managed to come back at the last moment in the sprint, but I think I didn’t make any mistakes,” explained David. “I raced to win, not to come second. I also made the efforts I wanted to make; it was something important. I very much enjoyed racing this way, having an impact on the race. It’s been a long time since I rode like that. It’s all positive. Let’s now head to the Tour of the Basque Country where we’ll first need to do a nice time trial on Monday. Then, we will take the days one after the other and hope that everything goes well.”
“We’re satisfied with the day”, concluded Thierry. “We certainly came to win, but he was in position to do so up to 200 metres from the line. He took confidence for the future, and that is the most important thing. What was necessary was to get good feelings again, and to be a protagonist to build up confidence for the future. The youngsters also did a good job all day.” Noah Hobbs actually won the peloton’s sprint for fourteenth place, twenty seconds behind the winner, while Thibaud Gruel had just been caught after an attack on the last lap (21st).
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