Arnaud Démare

2012 season

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

In August 2012, Demare won the first World Tour race of his career by prevailing in the Vattenfall Cyclassics, ahead of local favorite André Greipel and Giacomo Nizzolo.^[3] Démare clearly dominated the mass sprint contested in scorching heat at the end of the 245.6 km (152.6 mi) race.^[4]

2013 season

In 2013, Démare won 3 stages in a row at the Four Days of Dunkirk and the general classification.^[5] 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.^[6]

2014 season

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

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.^[7] He also put in some strong performances in the cobbled classics, finishing second in Gent–Wevelgem and twelfth in Paris–Roubaix.^[8]

2015 season

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.^[8]

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.^[8] He also announced that he would skip the Tour de France and focus on the Giro d'Italia instead.^[9] 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.^[10] Démare went on win the first full stage of Paris–Nice^[11] 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 km to go. However, in the absence of any photographic or video evidence, race officials decided not to take any action.^[12] 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.^[13]

2017 season

Demare at the 2017 Tour de France

On July 4, 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 2017 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.^[14] 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.^[15] 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.^[16]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.^[17]

Major results

Classics results timeline

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
Giro d'Italia	DNF	—	—	—	DNF	—	—
Tour de France	—	—	159	138	—	DNF	141
Vuelta a España	—	—	—	—	—	—	—