They had come within a whisker of Konrad, then a bit of a descent and a bit of the awareness that that Colbrelli in the wheel really did resemble a scorpion and was managing himself as such, the fact is that Gaudu he stopped believing in the chase and the possibility of winning the stage ended thereThe Tour up to that point had not been as he had dreamed, although since the evening of Tignes he had found himself the undisputed leader of the team, without Demare to share the space with. Instead, just two days later, Ventoux knocked him down with the brutality that mountain is capable of on bad days.. Whether it was the heat or excessive effort, that day the Breton of the Groupama-Fdj he dragged himself through cramps and bouts of vomiting, reaching the finish line 26 minutes after Van AertHe had started tenth overall, and that evening he had nothing left to hold on to except the faith that he could recover in the third week. And yesterday's escape, in some ways, seemed like a timid recovery.
“There are still three great opportunities,” he said yesterday at the start, “and we won’t let them slip away. Now we will have to move forward every day to try to win.I've always liked the third week of the Grand Tours."
Konrad Surprise
What he missed yesterday was the ability to believe in it to the end, combined with scepticism (betrayed by Colbrelli himself) about Konrad's possibilities, even if the Tour in the previous days had offered similar examples that had come to fruition.
«As always in this Tour – he told L'Equipe reporters after arriving – it's another stage that started at full speed. The breakaway started after almost 70 kilometers, but it was clear that it could reach the endSo I tried to squeeze in, also trying to conserve some energy. I managed to get a good shot. I had good legs. But when Konrad started alone on the Portet d'Aspet, I told myself that he was still really far from the finish line. But in the end he was right."
Little collaboration
And yet they had caught him. The 25 seconds at the top of the pass, sadly famous for the fall of Fabio Casartelli on that cursed day in 1995, were a margin that could be worked on by managing the effort with the head and arriving in Konrad's wake in the final.
"At the summit," he says, "I tried to relaunch because the group hadn't climbed fast enough. I thought we'd be back, since Colbrelli and I were about thirty seconds behind. But then Sonny started to cooperate less and right at that stage, Konrad raised the stakes and regained the lead.I felt good all day, little consolation, but I had strength. Now there are two more stages to give our bestI hope my body can recover well and I can attack again."
Snow is forecast
Despite the Ventoux setback, Gaudu, who finished ninth yesterday, climbed to 11th place overall. But at this point the ranking doesn't matter to himThe goal now is to win a stage, perhaps even today, on the finish at 2.209 meters on the Col du Portet, where snow is forecast.
“I like the next two arrivals,” he said before getting back on the bus and disappearing into his thoughts, “even if my heart leans towards the Luz-Ardiden stage, it makes me think of Pinot's victory on the Tourmalet in 2019The memory of that day is still full of emotion."
