At the top of Picón Blanco, the riders of the Vuelta a Espana completed the last of the countless climbs of the 2024 edition. The GC contenders engaged in a final face-to-face battle, and David Gaudu was one of the main protagonists. The Frenchman made an attack three kilometers from the summit, which enabled him to come close to the leading man Eddie Dunbar. Unfortunately, the Groupama-FDJ leader didn’t manage to close the final few metres and ultimately settled for seventh place in this “queen stage”. He also secured his fifth place overall and will start the final time trial on Sunday with a thirty-second lead over his closest chaser.
The Vuelta had saved the “best” for last, the best being the highest elevation gain. Before reaching Madrid for a closing time trial on Sunday, no less than 5,000 metres of climbing were on the menu for the riders this Saturday between Villarcayo and the Picón Blanco, which was also the hardest climb of the day (8km at 9%). Before that, six other climbs had to be covered, including two first-category ones, and almost no flat metres featured on the entire course. This “up-and-down” day could therefore lead to some major moves, but it rather became a race of attrition. While a nine-man breakaway was able to hit the front quite early, the peloton eased off before certain teams decided to make it hard, slowly but surely. “It was a very hard day,” assured David Gaudu. “There was a high pace, which we are more used to on the Tour. The teams wanted to race. I like these days when it is hard and that your legs hurt all along”. “We could possibly think that it would open up early, but we are also coming to the end of the Grand Tour, and I think that everyone had sore legs and focused on the final, which was not easy”, explained Thierry Bricaud.
“We had a lot of ambitions this morning”, Thierry Bricaud
The peloton therefore became smaller and smaller as the climbs went by, but it still included around forty riders after the Portillo de la Sia, sixty kilometres from the finish. Then came a long descent before the steady climb of the Puerto de Los Tornos, which quickly eliminated Carlos Rodriguez and Sepp Kuss. The breakaway was caught, around ten favourites passed the summit together, while Pavel Sivakov tried to anticipate the final climb. Over the fifteen kilometres leading to Picón Blanco, the Franco-Russian got up to one minute and a half of a lead, which was reduced to just one minute at the bottom. “We had a lot of ambitions this morning,” added Thierry. “The goal was first to gain time on the riders behind us in the general classification, but why not also take a bit of time on those in front, then we knew that there was a stage victory to go for. The race situation would eventually decide it all, and in the final, we certainly were more focused on the stage victory because there was not much to hope for in terms of the gaps.” Most of the favourites took a similar approach, which led to a climb with various attacks but also some downtimes.
“My Vuelta is a success in any case”, David Gaudu
As for David Gaudu, he did launch a few accelerations. After being chased down in the first kilometers of the climb, he eventually seized his chance on a slightly less steep section three kilometres from the summit to go and chase Eddie Dunbar, who went a few moments earlier. The Breton later recounted: “I said to myself: ‘You have to go all in. You’re fifth in the Vuelta, that’s great, but you’ve already finished fourth in the Tour. You haven’t won a stage yet, but you’re strong. Try and don’t listen to your legs. Everyone is struggling, everyone is going all out’. I didn’t think too much, but Dunbar was stronger than me on this final climb. I started to close the gap, but I didn’t manage to close it fully. I didn’t necessarily have my best legs of this Vuelta either.” “David wasn’t in a super day, but he tried to go for the stage,” added Thierry. “He really wanted it, but he missed that little something.” After he came back to within five seconds of the Irishman, David Gaudu eventually lost a few metres and was caught by the other GC contenders 1500 metres from the summit. “After that, everyone was on the limit,” added David.
While Dunbar managed to stay away, the Groupama-FDJ rider pushed hard to get seventh place at the summit, twenty-one seconds later. He also took sixteen seconds off Mathias Skjelmose, the white jersey, now thirty seconds behind him in the general classification. “I’m going to have to ride the best time trial of my life to keep the top-5 in Madrid,” said David. “I’m going to give it my all tomorrow, we’ll see where it leads me, but whether I finish 5th, 6th or 7th, my Vuelta is a success in any case.” “We’re obviously going to do everything to keep that fifth place overall, and let’s not forget that we also have a stage win to go for tomorrow with Stefan,” Thierry added. “The Vuelta isn’t quite over yet.”
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