Until the very end, David Gaudu tried to hold on to his leader’s jersey, but the last kilometre of the Green Mountain, on Wednesday, proved too much for the French climber. In this last stage of the Tour of Oman, the Groupama-FDJ rider was forced to let Valentin Paret-Peintre and Adam Yates get away as he approached the summit, thereby conceding the overall lead to the British rider. Nonetheless, he still concluded his first race of the season with a stage victory and an overall podium. A good omen for what’s coming next.
Barely 138 kilometres were on the menu this Wednesday to complete the Tour of Oman, but nothing was done yet regarding the overall rankings. Indeed, after 133 kilometres quite flat, a serious difficulty awaited the riders; the Green Mountain, six kilometres long with a 10% average slope. The ride to reach it didn’t prove easy either, since a breakaway of eighteen riders managed to go clear after about ten kilometres, forcing the peloton into a frantic, continuous chase throughout the day. Enzo Paleni therefore set the tempo at the head of the pack for almost a hundred kilometres, with two other teams, to make sure the fugitives did not enjoy too big of a lead. “Enzo did a great job today, but everyone contributed every day, depending on the race situation,” underlined Thierry Bricaud. The breakaway eventually got a maximum lead of two minutes thirty, which gradually reduced in the last thirty kilometres, with the Green Mountain in sight. The increasing nervousness also unfortunately led to the crash of Rudy Molard and Clément Braz Afonso with ten kilometres to go.
“I tried to bluff”, David Gaudu
At the bottom of the final climb, six kilometres from the finish, a handful of riders still had a one-minute lead, but the extremely fast pace set by Adam Yates’ teammates not only drastically reduced the peloton, but also put an end to the adventure of the day’s attackers. Halfway up the climb, there were only about ten men left in the group of favorites, including David Gaudu, well positioned in the wheel of his main rival. “I didn’t have extraordinary feelings, but it was still alright at the bottom,” said David. “Then, Jay Vine’s pull really hurt my legs, especially on the flatter section.” So, when the road picked up again to almost 15%, two kilometres from the summit, the Breton lost a few meters for the first time. “I managed my effort when Yates accelerated for the first time,” he said. “I came back, and with one kilometre to go, I tried to bluff. I got back alongside them, I closed my mouth, held back the pain hoping they would take a knock mentally. I thought: “maybe it can work.” But it didn’t work (smiles).” About 600 metres from the line, another attack by Adam Yates got the better of the Frenchman, and the Briton flew away with Valentin Paret-Peintre who beat him in the sprint.
“We would have signed up straight away”, Thierry Bricaud
David Gaudu reached the summit in third position, forty-five seconds later, which was too much to keep the leader’s jersey on his shoulders. “When you have the jersey in the morning and you can’t keep it in the final stage, you’re disappointed for sure,” he said later. “But I gave it my all. I fought with what I had day, I had to let go one kilometre from the finish and I completely blew up. If it had been decided by one second, I would have been much more frustrated. In this case, I can’t complain about anything. They were stronger than me on this last climb, I can just bow and say bravo to them”. “The frustration of having lost the jersey quickly went away because we know that David gave everything”, added Thierry. “The hierarchy on the final climb was clear, and he was missing a little bit”. The 28-year-old climber nevertheless secured his place on the final podium, in third position, to conclude this great week of racing in Oman. “We would have signed up straight away for the podium overall and a stage win,” Thierry recalled. “Apart from that, the team’s spirit and commitment are very interesting going forward. Everyone was up to the task, and it shows the winter preparation was good. We know we’re ready, now we have to keep going.”
David Gaudu concluded: “We would have liked to put the icing on the cake but that’s part of cycling. There will always be more disappointing moments than happy moments. We’ll quickly get over this small disappointment to be ready next weekend for the races in the South of France!”
