What is fourth overall in the Tour de France: ......" Of the riders who have failed to finish a step off the podium in the past decade, only Alejandro Valverde and Primoš Roglic were able to improve their results in the next Tour.

David Gaudou (Groupama-FDJ), who finished just behind Geraint Thomas and off the Tour podium last summer, is currently suffering from the "curse of fourth place" and is in eighth place overall. The French rider firmly believes that a comeback is still possible.

Gaudoux suffered terribly in the Puy de Dome, finishing in 25th place. In Paris, he missed third place by more than a minute to rivals Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), and Jai Hindley (Beulah Hansgrohe) by 1:06 and 52 seconds, respectively, in the 2022 Tour, After nine stages, he was in fifth place overall, 21 seconds off the podium.

However, despite being 3:21 behind Hindley and avoiding talking to the media after Sunday evening's loss, Gaud insisted at Monday's rest day press conference that he was still in contention for a podium finish.

"Yesterday was not the result I had hoped for," he said. 'Nonetheless, I felt really strong during the stage and I could rely on a great team. So I was very disappointed."

"So I had a good feeling in the first week, even if the result wasn't what I expected. But we decided to go for the GC and I hope we can keep stepping up and hope the second half of the season will be better."

Gordou insisted that even though the first week of the Tour is always tumultuous, the early part of the race went very well for him, noting that he was in the lead group when things broke down on the first stage, as was his teammate Thibaut Pinot. The race was not bad in the Pyrenees either. But things fell apart when he was at his best on the Puy de Dome.

"As a result, I felt more discouraged.

Asked directly if he intended to change his tactics regarding the GC, Gaud denied it. Rather, he said he intended to change his team's strategy in order to push his rivals further.

"When the team was launched, our goals were very ambitious and we wanted to do better than last year.

"A week has just passed and we have lost time, but the overall Tour de France standings are something we respect. So we want to take it one day at a time and as a team we will try to be more aggressive in the second half of the race."

Teammate Pinot, who is currently in 15th place overall but was also a valuable support to Gaudo in the last Tour de France, claimed in L'Equipe that "since I turned pro in 2010, there has never been such a big gap in the first week [of a Grand Tour]" and offered Gaudo provided historical perspective on the situation.

"I think a podium is still possible. Even if a podium is impossible, it is by no means ridiculous. In a hard race like the Tour de France, I won't be pessimistic if I finish fifth or sixth. I'm going to finish as high up the order as I can."

Pinot said that aside from the fact that the Puy de Dome was a tough day for Groupama-FDJ, he and the other riders discussed the ban on roadside spectators in the last kilometer for environmental reasons.

"Many of us riders talked about the lack of public spectators on the final part of the route, which I thought was unfortunate.

"Even though it was a great place, it brought back bad memories. There is a logical reason they did so, and it is understandable.

Pinot, who is aiming for a mountain stage win, added, "As they say, there is still a long way to go. It's only day nine of the race and we haven't ridden any major mountain stages yet. The first part of the race is relatively flat and the last part is hard. But after the second week, things will be different."

"If you look at the route book like a meal, you've had your appetizers but not your main course yet, and you haven't had your dessert yet. A lot can still happen."