This was certainly not how David Gaudu had imagined his first mountain test on the Giro. While the summit finish at Tagliacozzo truly kicked off the fight between the GC contenders on Friday on stage 7, the Groupama-FDJ’s leader was unfortunately unable to make the most of his potential. After suffering a hand injury following a crash, the French climber received brilliant support from his teammates to come back to the peloton before the final climb, thanks to a great team effort. Combative, he then limited his losses to fifty-one seconds over the day’s winner, Juan Ayuso, and now sits 21st overall.
A week after the ‘Grande Partenza’ in Albania, it was finally time for the climbers to appear on stage in this 108th Giro d’Italia. With nearly 3,500 metres of elevation gain spread over 168 kilometres, and a steep finish on the last climb, a first clash between the big guns was indeed expected in Tagliacozzo. Despite a lively start, with a seven-man breakaway going clear, the peloton had decided not to let the attackers fight for victory on Friday. They got a maximum gap of four minutes, but following the penultimate classified climb, the chase intensified significantly. During this pursuit, with forty kilometres to go, David Gaudu found himself on the ground. Although the rider from Brittany quickly got back on the saddle, he had to spend a long time at the medical car treating a bloodied hand. “RadioTour didn’t initially announce his crash; it was David himself on the radio who told us he had a hole in his hand,” Thierry Bricaud recounted. “We asked him to repeat, and he confirmed. On the TV footage, we saw him behind the peloton, so we weren’t too worried. However, he then had five difficult minutes, where he kind of switched off, and ten other minutes where he was really in pain. We could see he was having trouble holding the handlebars.”
“We’re there to help him as soon as he’s in trouble”, Thierry Bricaud
This is how the Frenchman found himself significantly distanced from the peloton in a short period of time. “We told him to stay focused, even though we couldn’t imagine the intensity of the pain,” Thierry added. “That being said, we could see that his legs were doing well, so we stayed optimistic. At first, Enzo and Clément waited for him and did a very good job keeping him alive. We then decided to make the whole team wait to get him back in the game. It’s rare to ask all seven riders to stop, but we wanted to be sure he wasn’t going to abandon before doing so. As soon as we realized that he was fighting and that he was motivated, the whole team supported him. We know we’re there to help him as soon as he’s in trouble, and that’s what the boys did very well today. Having his mates around him also gave him a boost”. While the gap on the bunch grew to almost two minutes at one point, David Gaudu benefited from an improvised team time trial for ten kilometers to get closer. With seventeen kilometres to go, as the final climb approached, the French climber could finally make his way back into the pack.
“Nothing is done”, Thierry Bricaud
“We knew it was quite rolling at the bottom of the climb,” Thierry added. “They took a deep breath before coming back, especially David, then we tried to make a progressive effort to bring him up in the peloton. He was then completely focused on his race.” Three kilometres from the summit, however, the gradient reached 10%, and the Groupama-FDJ leader gritted his teeth to hang on as long as possible. With courage, he was able to hold on until 1,300 metres from the summit, then fought against time until the finish line, which he crossed fifty seconds after the day’s winner, Juan Ayuso. “He missed something at the end because he still wasted some energy to get back, but he still did a decent climb,” Thierry said. “This day could have turned into a tragedy. It could have been the end of the Giro for David and a completely different second half of the Giro for the team. In the end, he remains in contention for the general classification. He’s less than two minutes behind the leader after a week of racing. Nothing is done” Twenty-fifth in the stage and twenty-first overall, the 28-year-old from Brittany also had three stitches put in his right hand on Friday evening.He will therefore be on the starting line on Saturday, for the eighth stage of the Giro d’Italia, which will take the riders to Castelraimondo through a hilly profile, made for the breakaway. “Many riders will be thinking about the stage victory, us too, so we’ll join the fight,” concluded Thierry.
