Tour de France contender David Gaudou's time trial results at the Criterium du Dauphiné are "not alarming" and "not dramatic," according to his Groupama-FDJ team management.

Gordou, who finished fourth overall in last year's Tour de France, is expected to be a factor in this year's GC contenders and is expected to lead the host nation. He also finished second overall in the Paris-Nice race this past March, and his performance in the week-long stage race has been recognized as a dramatic improvement.

However, in Wednesday's time trial at the Dauphiné, he finished 34th, more than two minutes behind defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).

Gaud told one of the team staff after the course that he had "done a shitty time trial," and later gave no less than self-critical analysis, though no expletives, to the reporters who were present during the race.

"It wasn't the Chrono I was expecting. I will now analyze what happened.

Like many, including Vingegaard, Gaudo said he ran too hard early in the course. I don't know. ...... " he also said.

While recognizing that repeating the Paris-Nice podium in 2023 in the only one-week World Tour race in France this week might be very complicated, Gaudet promised that he did not have the last word on this year's Dauphiné, and the interview was upbeat as he He ended the interview on an upbeat note.

Meanwhile, Groupama-FDJ sporting director Philippe Maudouy, as L'Equipe ironically reported on Thursday, "plunged deep into the thesaurus book" to counteract any sense that the alarm bells of the Tour de France were ringing in the French team camp plunged into it."

"David is ambitious and wanted a better result, but it's not alarming," Mauduit said.

"Last year's Dauphiné and Ituria-Basque final stages had a lot of climbing, and Gaudoux finished more than seven minutes behind in both, but he hasn't lost confidence in the Tour. You have to stay calm," he said. I haven't raced at all since Liège-Bastogne-Liège at the end of April, so that's normal. There is still a month and a half until the end of the Tour. I still have work to do and I will do it."