From Vuelta leader to rock bottom: David Gaudu collapses like a soufflé in the Vuelta

His run-up to the Vuelta had already been a rollercoaster. Like the year before, he broke his hand in the spring. That injury led to an anonymous Tour de France in 2024, and this year, Groupama-FDJ opted not to select him at all. After another low-key showing at the Giro, Gaudu wasn’t ready for the French grand tour and shifted focus to the Vuelta instead. That plan was working… until it wasn’t.

Signs of trouble started in stage 6 on Thursday. Gaudu had already lost the red jersey in the team time trial on stage 5, and in the Andorran mountains, he dropped around 30 seconds to the other GC contenders. A day later, with another mountain-top finish in Huesca La Magia, the Frenchman finished nearly 15 minutes behind stage winner Juan Ayuso, similar to Antonio Tiberi of Bahrain Victorious.

Anyone who thought Gaudu might be back in the GC fight was left disappointed. The real question now is how he recovers from two tough days, with plenty of climbing still to come. “I don’t know what happened, I just didn’t have a good feeling,” he told L’Équipe at the finish. “I didn’t feel great on Thursday either. And the team time trial? That was just average. So let’s just say… it’s getting worse every day.”

And just like that, after beating the likes of Mads Pedersen and Jonas Vingegaard on stage 3, David Gaudu has fallen way off the pace. “I hung in there, but it really wasn’t good,” he admitted after stage 7, sounding anything but optimistic. “It is what it is. I don’t have an explanation, and neither does the team. Just a few days ago I was at my best, and now… this. I don’t know what’s happening. My body just isn’t responding. My heart rate doesn’t go up anymore, and that’s hard. I can’t put out any power, it feels like I’m blocked.”

With many riders abandoning during the second weekend of the Vuelta due to illness, the big question now is whether Gaudu, too, has caught something. He couldn’t say for sure, though he did point out that riding for the overall classification was never really the goal. “So I might as well lose fifteen minutes when I feel like I just don’t have it. Let’s see what we can still do in weeks two and three. In a way, it’s a weight off my shoulders. I can race more freely now, if I can get my legs back.”