About 40 kilometers from the end on stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico, David Gaudu crashed within the feed zone and was pressured to desert the race on Tuesday. The extent of the affect was unclear on the time.
Today, the Groupama-FDJ workforce introduced on social media that “David Gaudu underwent surgical procedure for a fracture on the base of the primary metacarpal.”
The workforce additionally said that they’d share additional updates on his restoration timeline sooner or later.
It was the third crash prior to now 15 days for the French rider.
“Some riders brake onerous in entrance of him, and he was hit from behind,” mentioned directeur sportif Thierry Bricaud on the day of the crash in a workforce launch. “He’s been having a extremely dangerous interval for 2 weeks. He was there to see what his winter work would have introduced, to begin a momentum, and it is a new setback.”
It stays unsure how his harm will have an effect on his debut on the Giro d’Italia, which is lower than two months away. Earlier this yr, he advised L’Équipe that his purpose was to safe a top-five end—or perhaps a spot on the rostrum. After that, he meant to sort out the Tour de France, an unavoidable problem for a French rider, the place he positioned fourth in 2022 and ninth in 2023.
This newest crash got here three days after he went down, twice, at Strade Bianche, the primary time with a gaggle of round 20 riders. After getting a brand new bike, he crashed a second time one kilometre later and deserted the Italian Spring Classic.
The 28-year-old began the yr with a stage win and third total at Tour of Oman, earlier than he was sidelined by an unfortunate crash brought on by an animal throughout a coaching experience. He needed to skip the Classic Var and the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes to get well from “muscle harm to the gluteus medius”, as reported by his workforce.
