David Gaudu ruled out of Tour de France due to lack of form

David Gaudu has announced that he will miss the 2025 Tour de France, citing poor form. The Frenchman struggled to make an impression at last month’s Giro d’Italia, where he crashed in the opening week and placed 66th overall.

Speaking to AFP on Thursday, Gaudu said that the decision not to line out at the Tour had been taken in accordance with Groupama-FDJ management. 

“Given my current level… I’ve been transparent with the team,” Gaudu said. “In any case, they have my values and my data, so we decided together to skip the Tour this year.”

Gaudu placed fourth overall at the Tour in 2022 but has not hit the same heights since in July, even though a second-place finish at the 2023 Paris-Nice between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard raised home hopes further. The Breton took ninth overall in 2023 and a lowly 65th at last year’s Tour, though he bounced back with an encouraging sixth overall at the Vuelta a España.

His 2025 campaign began with a stage win on the Tour of Oman, but his build-up to the Giro was compromised by the hand injury he suffered in a crash at Tirreno-Adriatico in March. 

In Gaudu’s absence, Guillaume Martin is the headline act in Groupama-FDJ’s Tour roster, which will also include Romain Gregoire and Valentin Madouas. Stefan Küng’s participation is in doubt due to the imminent arrival of his second child.