Twenty-four hours after his scintillating stage win in Ceres, Italy, David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) pulled on a Grand Tour’s leader jersey in his home country of France. Not the yellow jersey of the Tour de France, but the maillot rojo of the Vuelta a España — a career first for the beaming Frenchman. Befitting for a unique stage of the Spanish Grand Tour, which started in Italy and finished in France, summiting a col over 2,000m, but finishing in a bunch sprint, the destination of the red jersey came down to the unusual count back system and the finishing positions of Gaudu and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), both tied on the same time at the start of the day.
At the finish in Voiron, Gaudu had to finish eight places ahead of the two-time Tour winner and the overall favourite for the race, which meant getting stuck in at the bunch sprint won by Ben Turner.
“I was in my head this morning, I didn’t know if I should fight for positions in the bunch sprint because it is very very dangerous,” a smiling Gaudu said resplendent in his new red jersey.
For climbers like Gaudu to jostle for position in the chaotic finishes — the run-in into Vioron was particularly choppy with a number of roundabouts and corners — it can be treacherous. We have often seen general classifications go up in smoke at the Tour, Giro and Vuelta in the first few stages featuring flat finishes, where a key rider has crashed due to the congestion. But for Gaudu and Groupama, the rewards were worth it.
“I just disconnected my body and went full to the finish line,” laughed Gaudu, “it’s incredible.”
Disconnected or not, the red jersey was clearly on the minds of the Frenchman and his team all day. With more than 30km to go on the stage, Groupama positioned themselves on the left-hand side of the road, to lead out Gaudu in the intermediate sprint in Noyarey, where he finished fifth, two spots outside the bonus seconds, which would have all-but guaranteed him the jersey.
“The team was doing a lead out, we were in front of the bunch and just followed the wheel, but I couldn’t win the bonus seconds. I talked into the radio [saying] that at the finish we can do it on the finish line. The team for the last 30kms were doing an incredible job. This jersey is for the team too,” explained Gaudu.
Yesterday it was the cunning and impressively navigated final corner, executed to perfection. Today it was the daring to risk crashing to claim the jersey. Gaudu is proving he is well and truly in life-time form at this Vuelta. After Monday’s stage we posed the question of whether Gaudu could challenge for the podium at the race. With a stage win to his name and now the red jersey, why not go all-out for his first Grand Tour podium?
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His squad will start their defence of the jersey on Wednesday’s Team Time Trial (TTT), as the Vuelta enters his home country for the first time. Not known for their TTT ability, Groupama on paper will have a tough task of holding off the likes of Visma and UAE Team Emirates-XRG. But, they have Stefan Küng and Remi Cavagna on their roster and could spring a surprise.
“We have a strong team for the team time trial. If we didn’t get this jersey, it would be the same: we would just push and do the best TTT as possible. We will see when we cross the line, what will have happened, but we will give it our all,” Gaudu said. Even if they were to lose the jersey on the TTT, Gaudu’s form suggests he will be knocking up around the podium into the second week, and if he does this, then who knows what could happen in the final week?
The happy Frenchman is blushing in red, now to fight to hold onto it.
