At the finish line of Eastern Mountain, David Gaudu let out a true and forbidden liberating scream, releasing all his joy and fully aware of having given absolutely everything. Immediately after the finish line, he collapsed to the ground, exhausted and destroyed, but with a smile on his face: he had just beaten Adam Yates in a sprint.

A few days ago, on the eve of the Tour of Oman, we had the opportunity to have a long chat with the French rider who in this 2025 has bet everything on the Giro d'Italia where he will try to assault the podium. He changed a lot of his preparation in the winter, and today's victory at the Tour of Oman is proof that he is definitely on the right track. "It's really nice to start the season with a victory, I couldn't have asked for better. This winter I trained really hard to improve my explosiveness, I wasn't very sure about the changes, but now I understand I made the right choice. For us cyclists, the season is increasingly long and difficult to manage, you have to be 100% in every race, and it's really complicated. Starting this way is very important for me because it gives me the right push to face everything else. And it's not easy to beat an athlete of Adam Yates' caliber on this terrain," Gaudu explains, extremely happy to have started his season in the best possible way.

The French rider from Groupama Fdj thanked each of his teammates for the precious work done during the day, putting him in the best position to face the final climb. "The guys were fantastic," he said. "All day they were by my side, they worked hard to control the breakaway and in the finale they made a deadly pull. I knew Yates was the man to beat, he's incredible in these finishes and I couldn't let him go. He was the first to accelerate and then I tried, once, twice, he was always on my wheel and it was impossible to drop him. Then I saw that the finish line was very close and I told myself I had to try to give everything, it was my chance, I couldn't let it slip away." Gaudu was the protagonist of a real head-to-head with Adam Yates in the final kilometers, which ended literally on the finish line.

The British rider is undoubtedly the most dangerous opponent and will try to assault the red leader's jersey in the day after tomorrow's queen stage towards Green Mountain. "Honestly, I don't know the climb, I've only heard about it, and from what I've seen, it suits Adam Yates better than me. With the leader's jersey, we'll have the responsibility to control the race, but we must try to remain calm and do our best. I've never won a leader's jersey and this could finally be the opportunity, I promise I'll give my all".