A dark Frenchman, another comes to the surface.
If Romain Bardet had his worst day on the 2022 Tour, David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) becomes the highest ranked Frenchman overall.
Arriving in Foix at the same time as Vingegaard, Pogacar or Geraint Thomas, the little Breton finds himself fifth in the standings.
He is still 4′24′ from Vingegaard but only 1′41′ from third place occupied by Thomas.
On the finish line in Ariège, Gaudu first had a thought for his teammate Valentin Madouas, who failed in second place in the stage behind Canadian Hugo Houle.
"It's a shame that Valentin finished second," he complains behind the mask slipped on by a trainer.
I told him yesterday
(Monday)
:
tomorrow (Tuesday) it's for you.
But Hugo Houle is doing a huge number, congratulations to him.
There are still some great days ahead of us, we can't manage to make it happen in the breakaways but the team is running really well.
»
On his own fate, Gaudu refuses, rightly, to get carried away: "I find myself in front, I go up a little in the general classification, we are not far from playing for the win, it's a pleasure to be in this Tour de France.
I didn't have great legs today, but it's still ok.
It will take a little bit of luck to get on the podium.
Afterwards, no one is safe from a day without, whether it's me, Geraint Thomas or someone else.
I hope the best will come.
»
If Gaudu wants to reassure himself, he can think that the chain of high passes is the type of route that best suits his intrinsic qualities.
Morally touched after the stage of L'Alpe-d'Huez, the leader of Groupama-FDJ, who works a lot on affect, has regained his confidence.
He is still in the race for the podium at the start of the last two days of the Pyrenees.
When leaving for Copenhagen on July 1, he would have signed up for such a scenario.