Paris (AFP)

On the eve of Milan-Sanremo, Arnaud Démare appointed Belgian Wout Van Aert as his first favorite on Friday, building on his success a week ago at the Strade Bianche, and insisted on the heat factor.

"He sprints, he knows how to arrive on his own, it will be Wout Van Aert the favorite," said the Frenchman, winner of the great Italian classic in 2016 and winner of Milan-Turin on Wednesday.

The leader of the Groupama-FDJ team underlined the risk linked to the heat which must accompany the long race of nearly 300 kilometers: "The risk is rather digestive. Chain twelve liters of water over seven hours of cycling, It's not easy. We have ice cubes that we usually put in the neck, we water a lot, to lower the temperature and avoid becoming dehydrated. "

The Picard felt that he had never been so well surrounded in his training: "I can count on my teammates even more than usual, they are all on top of what they can do to me. From the internship at the Grand -Bornand (Haute-Savoie) three weeks ago, the whole team was really good. We wanted to start again to win. "

"We put in place at the Tour de Burgos what we had left in suspense at the UAE Tour", he continued, specifying that he had reviewed training differently this year: "At the UAE, it does not I didn't see himself but I had the fangs. What I lacked was my confidence. And maybe I had lost a bit of explosiveness in recent years. "

Démare also returned to his masterful sprint from Milan to Turin: "We were very strong at the collective level and I managed to get out at a time when it was a little risky. Sagan anticipates my sprint, Caleb Ewan could have m 'lock up but I managed to put my elbow and pass. I was able to express myself as I wanted. "

Finally asked about the terrible fall of the Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen on Wednesday in the Tour of Poland, the Frenchman reacted: "We were all shocked watching the video. Falls like that there is one every ten years. There are plenty of things to question, whether it is the runner, the barriers ... "

"The act of the runner (Groenewegen, at the origin of the fall, Editor's note) is inadmissible", he added. "We must also be even more vigilant on the approach of the sprint at the infrastructure level. When we see the barrier that flies and we compare with what may have happened at the Tour de France (2017) ... When I wins at Vittel, the barrier does not move and Cavendish comes back to slide on the road. You should never get off the road, otherwise there are too many obstacles, posts, which can be fatal ".

© 2020 AFP