In the first proper summit finish of La Vuelta a España this Thursday, David Gaudu lost a bit of ground to the favorites, but atop of the Pal’s climb, he limited his losses to 28 seconds. He now sits fifteenth overall, which is led by four riders who took the day’s breakaway. Another fight in the mountains is coming tomorrow in Cerler.
For the first time since the start of the 2025 Vuelta a España, the peloton tackled a stage featuring more than 3,500 metres of elevation gain on Thursday. The climbers, and the GC contenders, were therefore expected in Andorra, after the Alto de La Comella (4km at 8%) and then the final ascent to Pal (9.5km at 6.5%). The first part of the race also included some climbs, much less steep, during which the breakaway could establish itself after about ten kilometres. “We wanted to be careful if a group of more than ten riders broke away, but the priority was to support David,” explained Frédéric. “A breakaway of ten went without us and had the opportunity to go all the way, but we don’t really have any regrets. We thought the favourites would battle in this first summit finish. Visma-Lease a Bike wanted to leave the jersey, that’s how it is. We had planned to stay quite conservative. Given what he had shown recently, we had to be around David for the stage and the overall.” Although the breakaway was kept under three minutes for a while, the peloton finally decided to give up ground in the second half of the race.
“It’s not a big deal,” Frédéric Guesdon
The gap went over six minutes with forty kilometres to go, then the peloton started to get nervous approaching the penultimate climb of the day. “The first crucial point for us was to position David at the bottom of this climb, with twenty-five kilometers to go, because it was quite a hard one, and this is where the race was supposed to start,” explained Frédéric Guesdon. “Then there was a very technical descent on wet roads, and that’s why we saw our rouleurs position David early on.” A peloton of about seventy riders broke clear with twenty kilometres to go, while Jay Vine was already going solo, five minutes ahead. “Then the climbers supported David until 5-6 kilometres from the finish, and fortunately so,” Frédéric added. “David punctured about eight kilometres from the finish, and Rudy helped him get back quickly, which proves that it’s always useful to have teammates by your side.” Within the bunch, the selection process gradually took place from the back on the final climb. “I did my best to stay with David,” said Brieuc Rolland, David Gaudu’s last teammate. “We did a good job as a team, and everyone was committed.”
While Jay Vine easily took the stage win, the pace within the peloton really increased in the final five kilometres. With three kilometres to go, Giulio Ciccone launched the fight, and from then on, David Gaudu just tried to hold on as best he could until the finish line. Not far behind the favorites until the flamme rouge, the Breton finally crossed the line twenty-eight seconds after Jonas Vingegaard. “It went fast at the end, and he didn’t have the best legs,” said Frédéric. “He lost a bit of time, but it’s not a big deal. He may have also paid a little for his efforts in the first stages.” The leader of Groupama-FDJ therefore managed to limit his losses and now sits in fifteenth place in the general classification, led by Torstein Traeen, a member of the day’s breakaway. “I think a breakaway could again have a chance tomorrow, depending on who’s in it,” Frédéric added. “That being said, everyone will have the same goal and it may take time for the break to form. In any case, we’ll try to be represented at the front.”
