Arnaud Démare

Arnaud Démare

Démare at the 2015 Tour de France
Personal information
Full name	Arnaud Démare
Born	(1991-08-26) 26 August 1991 (age 30) Beauvais, France
Height	1.82 m (5 ft 11+1⁄2 in)
Weight	76 kg (168 lb; 12 st 0 lb)
Team information
Current team	Groupama–FDJ
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Amateur teams
2008–2009	Team Wasquehal
2010–2011	CC Nogent-sur-Oise
2011	FDJ (stagiaire)
Professional team
2012–	FDJ–BigMat[1][2]
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France 2 individual stages (2017, 2018) Giro d'Italia Points classification (2020) 5 individual stages (2019, 2020) Stage races Four Days of Dunkirk (2013, 2014) Tour de Wallonie (2020) Boucles de la Mayenne (2021) Single-day races and Classics National Road Race Championships (2014, 2017, 2020) Milan–San Remo (2016) Vattenfall Cyclassics (2012) Grand Prix de Denain (2013, 2017) London–Surrey Classic (2013) Brussels Cycling Classic (2017) Milano–Torino (2020)
show Medal record Men's road bicycle racing Representing  France World Championships 2011 Copenhagen Under-23 road race European Championships 2020 Plouay Road race

Arnaud Démare (born 26 August 1991) is a professional road racing cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Groupama–FDJ.^[3] In 2011 he won the UCI World Under-23 Road Race Championships,^[4] and in 2016 he won the Milan–San Remo.

Career[]

2012 season[]

Démare celebrating victory on the final stage of the 2012 Tour of Qatar

In August 2012, Démare won the first World Tour race of his career by prevailing in the Vattenfall Cyclassics, ahead of local favorite André Greipel and Giacomo Nizzolo.^[5] Démare clearly dominated the mass sprint contested in scorching heat at the end of the 245.6 km (152.6 mi) race.^[6]

2013 season[]

In 2013, Démare won 3 stages in a row at the Four Days of Dunkirk and the general classification.^[7] On the third stage, his team-mate and lead-out rider Geoffrey Soupe produced a final power surge to launch Démare, and the duo finished one-two in the mass sprint, with Ramon Sinkeldam of Argos–Shimano taking third place.^[8]

2014 season[]

Démare won the Four Days of Dunkirk stage race for the second year in succession, winning two stages during the event. He also won the points and young rider classifications.^[9] He also put in some strong performances in the cobbled classics, finishing second in Gent–Wevelgem and twelfth in Paris–Roubaix.^[10]

2015 season[]

Démare at the 2015 Tour de France wearing the French national champion's jersey

Démare struggled for form for much of the 2015 season, only scoring one top ten finish in the spring classics with a tenth place in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. He did however manage to score two stage wins in the Tour of Belgium.^[10]

2016 season[]

In January 2016 Démare announced his race plans for the first half of the new season, starting his campaign on home soil at the Étoile de Bessèges and Tour Méditerranéen, followed by competing in the cobbled classics of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne, Milan–San Remo, Gent–Wevelgem, Tour of Flanders and Paris–Roubaix, along with the stage races Paris–Nice and the Three Days of De Panne.^[10] He also announced that he would skip the Tour de France and focus on the Giro d'Italia instead.^[11] He enjoyed success at the Tour Méditerranéen, where his FDJ squad won the race's opening team time trial and he won the following stage.^[12] Démare went on win the first full stage of Paris–Nice^[13] and then took the biggest win of his career at the Milan–San Remo. His victory was questioned by rival riders Matteo Tosatto and Eros Capecchi, who alleged that Démare had been assisted by a tow from a team car on the climb up the Cipressa after he crashed with 30 kilometres (19 miles) to go. However, in the absence of any photographic or video evidence, race officials decided not to take any action.^[14] Démare became the first Frenchman to win the Milan-San Remo since Laurent Jalabert in 1995. He was also the first Frenchman to win a Monument race since 1997, when Jalabert and Frédéric Guesdon had won the Giro di Lombardia and Paris–Roubaix respectively.^[15]

2017 season[]

Démare at the 2017 Tour de France

On 4 July, two days after finishing Stage 2 in second position behind Marcel Kittel, Démare clinched his first Tour de France or Grand Tour stage win by winning the Tour de France's fourth stage that ended in a hectic sprint into Vittel; it was the first stage victory by a Frenchman in a bunch sprint since Jimmy Casper won Stage 1 that started and ended in Strasbourg in 2006.^[16] In Stage 6, Démare was edged out again into a second-place finish by Marcel Kittel, who launched a perfectly timed late sprint with around 200 metres to go.^[17] Démare was ill during the mountainous Stage 8 and fell back very early. Two teammates were with him to try and bring him in within the time limit. He eventually finished in 188th position, 37 min 33 sec behind the Stage 8 winner.^[18] Démare, who was sitting in second position in the points classification at the start of the Stage 9, finished that challenging mountain stage in a group around 40 minutes behind the Stage 9 winner. That put him outside the time limit, and therefore out of the Tour de France, along with six other riders.^[19]

2018 season[]

He rode in the 2018 Tour de France, but did not have any wins in the early flat stages. During the multiple high mountain stages of the 2nd and 3rd weeks he once again fell back and was in danger of missing the time cut, but assisted by teammates he survived the high mountains. On stage 18, the final flat stage before the Champs Elysees, he was led out perfectly by Jacopo Guarnieri and claimed the stage victory.

2019 season[]

Démare was taking part in the long-range, high-speed bunch sprint when he timed his move to perfection less than a kilometre from the finishing line to win stage 10, which ended on the streets of Modena, of the Giro d'Italia, his first ever Giro stage win.^[20]

2020 Season[]

During the shortened 2020 cycling season he won the French National road race championship and a stage in the Tour de Luxembourg. In October he had the best grand tour performance of his career during the 2020 Giro, where he won four stages. He also became the first rider in a decade to claim three stage wins in the first nine stage "week" of the Giro.^[21] He denied Peter Sagan victory twice in the first week, before Sagan won stage 10 and then finished 2nd to Démare again on stage 11.^[22] Démare took the Points Classification jersey after stage 5 and held it for the remainder of the race.

Major results[]

Grand Tour general classification results timeline[]

Grand Tour	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Giro d'Italia	DNF	—	—	—	DNF	—	—	123	121	—
Tour de France	—	—	159	138	—	DNF	141	—	—	DNF
Vuelta a España	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	96

Classics results timeline[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arnaud Démare.

• Arnaud Démare at ProCyclingStats
• Arnaud Démare at Cycling Archives
• Arnaud Démare at CQ Ranking
• Arnaud Démare at the Comité National Olympique et Sportif Français (in French)
• Arnaud Démare at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)