Gaudu nabs Vuelta lead after his 'first and last' crack at bunch sprint

David Gaudu could only smile about it afterwards, but an unusual situation called for unusual measures. To take the red jersey at the Vuelta a España, the Breton was compelled to throw himself into the rough and tumble of the bunch sprint on stage 4 to Voiron.

After winning stage 3 in Ceres, Gaudu had drawn level with Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) in the overall standings, but he fell short of the red jersey by dint of their respective placings on the opening stage to Novara.

On Tuesday, Gaudu’s task was clear. Once he had failed to nab bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint, he knew he had to finish at least eight places ahead of Vingegaard in the inevitable bunch sprint. He duly did so, placing 25th to the Dane's 42nd to take the red jersey on countback.

“It’s the first and last time I’ll go in there because... it’s not my place,” Gaudu smiled afterwards. “It’s a fair reward for the lads’ work. It was a mini goal, but we didn’t want to get too hung up on it because there’s still a risk of falling... 

“It was in my head this morning, but I didn’t know if I should fight for position in the bunch sprint because it’s very, very dangerous. But when I saw my feeling in the finish, I just went for it. And the team did an incredible job. I just disconnected my body and went full to the finish line.”

Gaudu’s Groupama-FDJ squad had worked hard to put him in position for the bonus seconds with 35km to go, and Vingegaard seemed content to leave the Frenchman to it, but he didn’t have the firepower to compete with Mads Pedersen and the fast men who were chasing points for the green jersey. Even so, the experience encouraged him to try again in the finale.

“The team did the lead-out, and we were at the front of the bunch, so I just followed the wheels and I tried to arrive in the bonus seconds,” he said. “I spoke to the guys on the radio afterwards and said at the finish we could do it. The team did an incredible job in the last kilometres, and this jersey is for the team too.”

Gaudu admitted that his first lead in a Grand Tour had personal resonance, too, after an injury-blighted season that saw him struggle at the Giro d'Italia and then omitted from the Tour de France line-up. 

After winning a stage on Italian roads on Monday, he has now taken the race lead in France, and he will carry red to Spain for Wednesday’s team time trial. He remains locked on time with Vingegaard and eight seconds clear of Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek).

“It’s a bit symbolic, because I’ve won on the Vuelta in Italy after a failed Giro,” Gaudu said. “And now I’m going to take the leader’s jersey in France. It’s a nice nod to everything the team has done over the last few days and even since day one.”

The team will be key to Gaudu’s prospects of holding the jersey for more than a day, given that he faces a 26.1km team time trial in Figueres on stage 5. Vingegaard and his Visma squad will be favoured to win the day and reclaim red, but Gaudu has rouleurs like Stefan Küng and Remi Cavagna in his corner.

“We have a strong team for the team time trial,” said Gaudu, who placed sixth overall at last year's Vuelta. “We’ll give everything and we’ll see where that leaves us. It’s a discipline that we’ve worked at. We’ll see tomorrow, but we’ve succeeded in our objective for today.”