Announced as the big favorite of the French cycling championship of Grand-Champ (Morbihan), Arnaud Démare has kept his rank. On a 237-kilometer circuit where attacks have multiplied, the Groupama-FDJ team, already titled six times since 2012, has done everything to lock out the race and ensure its leader a sprint finish.
“The team was united, we were attacked from all sides, but we remained united until the end, welcomed the winner after the race. It was a huge job. I doubted a bit during the attacks at the end of the race, but Benjamin Thomas was able to bring the team back. “
???? What a finish! Despite the successive attempts of Julian Alaphilippe, Arnaud Démare was too strong and won… https://t.co/R7YXK8gawL
Starting alone on a hill four kilometers from the finish, Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) widened the gap for a while at the head of the race, before being joined by two pure sprinters, Arnaud Démare and Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital-Concept).
The best climber of the Tour de France 2018, second in Milan-San Remo, could not do anything against Démare, very fit in recent weeks, who won in the sprint ahead of Coquard and Alaphilippe. “In the three-way final, it was really special, I went into the unknown, because I haven’t done so often, sprints like that. Finally, the legs were up to the task, I was able to throw and resist ”, says Julian Alaphilippe.
Already winner this season of the Tour of Wallonia and Milan-Turin, the 28-year-old sprinter confirms that he is currently playing at a very high level. Absent from the next Tour de France, where his team will be entirely devoted to Thibaut Pinot, Arnaud Démare will compete in the Tour of Italy in October. Today’s victory gives him his third title of champion of France, after those of 2014 and 2017. Only Jean Stablinski, four times titled in the 1960s, did better.
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