“I could have taken it badly, but no”: David Gaudu reassured to share leadership with Guillaume Martin

Guillaume Martin, former leader of Cofidis, signed with David Gaudu's Groupama-FDJ this season. EPA – CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON

With Breton climbers David Gaudu and Norman Guillaume Martin, its star recruit, the Groupama-FDJ team is banking on a “two-headed eagle” at the Tour de France this summer to try to compete with foreign armadas.

“For the Tour we have already divided up the stages, I will win the time trial at home in Normandy and David will win in Mûr-de-Bretagne”, Guillaume Martin said during the presentation of the season on Wednesday in Boulogne-Billancourt.

It was all said in a joking tone of course, because Martin is anything but a time trial specialist. But the joke was meant to be a sign of the cordial understanding between two riders with similar profiles, who excel first of all in their consistency in the mountains, and could thus step on each other's pedals.

“When I told David that there was a good chance that it would happen with Guillaume, he replied: “That's great”. You can't imagine the weight that takes off of me”. So I have no concerns about their cohabitation”, Philippe Mauduit, the racing director of the French team, certifies to AFP.

“It's also important that we have an experienced leader on each of the three major Tours, with David also on the Giro and Guillaume on the Vuelta”, adds Mauduit. “On the Tour, they start at this stage on an equal footing, a bit like the Sky team at the time which started with three leaders, Wiggins, Thomas and Froome without knowing who was the priority for the general classification.”

Gaudu “starving to death”

“I could have taken it badly if Guillaume arrived but frankly no”, assures Gaudu to the AFP.

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Fourth in the Tour de France in 2022 and sixth in the Vuelta last September at the end of a 2024 season which was otherwise complicated, the 28-year-old Breton ans believes that this allows him to “relieve the pressure of the Tour”, especially since he will come out of his first Giro, his first big goal.

“We are still waiting to know the participation in the Giro but a Top 5 is possible”, insists the one who says he is “starving”. “I had a great winter and I'm going to discover lots of places where I've never put my wheels”, underlines the one who will notably race the Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico, but not the Ardennes classics, according to a program revised from top to bottom.

Guillaume Martin, who has nine Top 15s in twelve participations in a major Tour, also believes that it is “a chance” to be with Gaudu. “We were adversaries for a long time but there won't be too many of us on the Tour de France to try to compete against the big armadas”, explains to AFP the former Cofidis player who will notably compete in Paris-Nice and the Dauphiné.

Cavagna “revengeful”

For the 31-year-old Norman, who needed to “break out of the routine” after five years at Cofidis, it is also “a return to his roots” in a team he had been with in 2014 as an intern for an inconclusive trial.

“We missed each other ten years ago, largely due to my mistake, admits team boss Marc Madiot to AFP. We made a choice, we were wrong. There was something to purge between us, we will make up for lost time.”

Making up for lost time is also the goal of Rémi Cavagna, another big name in French cycling to join the team after a season of total distress at Movistar.

“The worst moment of my career”, sighs the “TGV of Clermont-Ferrand” to AFP. “My family, my friends, everyone said to me: “But Rémi, what's happening to you? We don't see you anymore”. All that is true. I completely lost myself. Now I am seeking revenge, I want to find the Rémi on the attack.”

“He wanted to find a cocoon. He told me he wanted to hurt the others' legs. He will win races this season, that's for sure”, assures Madiot.