Grand-Champ (France) (AFP)
Arnaud Démare did not stall. Announced as the man to beat at the French Championships on Sunday, he responded to the fireworks of Julian Alaphilippe in the final to put on a third blue-white-red jersey and return his good to Groupama-FDJ who is piling up a 7th title since 2012.
"The favorite sign has happened to me before. It's no more embarrassing than that", swept the Groupama-FDJ sprinter on Saturday. Arnaud Démare demonstrated on Sunday that the confidence that transpired from his words was not excessive.
The Milan-Sanremo 2016 winner did not need a massive sprint to carve out a third dimension on his record. With three tricolor jerseys (after 2014 and 2017), + Nono + joins a name in the cycling imagination, Jean Stablinski, the only courier since the post-war crowned at least three times champion of France (four in total, a record).
- The flight of Alaphilippe -
In the days preceding the race, he feared a man, the hero of the 2019 Tour, Julian Alaphilippe. “Even in great shape, I'm not sure I can follow him,” feared the sprinter in an interview with Direct Vélo.
And indeed, + Alaf + flew four kilometers from the finish on the last bump of the 18 km circuit in the Breton hinterland, between the fields and the flat stone and slate houses of the village of Grand -Field.
"When Julian leaves, I told myself that it was time to go, says Démare. I didn't panic, I knew he was going to switch with only five or ten seconds in advance, that he had to that I make my effort afterwards and not get into the red before. "
The return of another sprinter, Bryan Coquard, "did him a lot of good to be able to breathe a few seconds".
The duo, back on Alaphilippe by force of relay, made speak its speed in the last hectometers. And in the game of raw power, Arnaud Démare, on a cloud since August, was the strongest of the three. Coquard, the second.
For 4th place, Clément Venturini settled the sprint, five seconds behind the trio, ahead of Anthony Turgis and Rudy Molard.
Démare, double stage winner in the Tour but absent in a week of the Great Loop where his team is betting everything on Thibaut Pinot, was the "favorite N.1" by the confession of the defending champion Warren Barguil.
After raising his arms in front of the top names in the world sprint in Milan-Turin, Démare had ridden in the Tour de Wallonie. And his response to Philippe Gilbert's violent acceleration in the last kilometer of the last stage, which he added to his list of achievements, announced thighs ready to follow, or almost, Alaphilippe.
- "The year of revenge" -
His Groupama-FDJ formation perfectly padlocked the race on Sunday. "For me 2020, it will be the year of revenge. We want to take over the coat in the team," announced his boss Marc Madiot.
Its 17 men at the start held in check the breakaways and groups of cons who tried from the first round to blow the lock of Groupama-FDJ. And when after the general regrouping at 7.5 km, Florian Sénéchal crushed the peloton to prepare an offensive from his leader + Alaf +, Démare, protected all day, was on the right wheels to be able to switch to the top of the last bump at litter of the man with the fourteen yellow jerseys.
"Arnaud was quite simply the strongest, he made the connection and managed to pull off a big sprint afterwards", could only note the ex-world No. 1, "without regret" on this circuit "not enough difficult to tell the difference "but the face closed.
"There is only one who wears this jersey for a year, he relished a Demare in heaven. It is when you no longer have it that you realize what you have lost." Since 2012, he had never escaped two years in a row from the FDJ.
© 2020 AFP