Démare finished the 116th edition of the race in four hours, 53 minutes and one second. He was half a bike length ahead of Edward Theuns (Trek – Segafredo) in second place, and Sam Bennett (BORA – Hansgrohe) who finished third.
Behind them, former winner Phillippe Gilbert (Lotto Soudal), racing the final event of his professional cycling career, finished in 27th in the same reduced group of 36 as the winner.
The 213.5-kilometre route was challenging from the start. It included ten gravel sectors, or ‘vineyard paths’, which added to the tactical nature of the race.
Three riders attacked early, Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team), Clément Carisey (Go Sport-Roubaix Lille Métropole) and Alexis Gougeard (B&B Hotels-KTM), who were joined about 26 kilometres later by Romain Cardis (St Michel-Auber93) and Maël Guégan (Team U Nantes Atlantique). By the 80-kilometre mark, they had established a lead of almost seven minutes.
As riders attacked to reel in the early breakaway, one of the key groups that powered away from the peloton included Démare’s Groupama-FDJ teammate, Olivier Le Gac.
The peloton remained only a minute away from Le Gac’s group for a long time as the riders clawed their way back to the leading group. “I already had cramps 40 kilometres from the finish, so I did less work than the other riders in the breakaway,” Olivier said.
“I didn’t want to go flat out and help the others go far, and then be dropped in the end. Eventually, in the last climb, I still had a bit of energy to follow the attacks.”
In the race of attrition behind them, the bunch still included about forty riders.
“It really hurt on the [gravel] sectors, but the pace eased off every time we got back on the road,” Démare said.
“I think that’s because the right teams were in the breakaway. Everyone was happy with the situation. We didn’t really know what to do either. We didn’t want to pull behind Olivier, we wanted to trust him.”
The last remaining breakaway riders were eventually caught with less than two kilometres to go. This led to a reduced bunch sprint on the long Avenue de Grammont, where Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) led out Démare for the win.
“A sprint after 200 kilometres of an attrition race is not the same thing as a sprint after a quiet race,” said Küng.
“I trusted Arnaud, and he trusted me. When Trek-Segafredo did not continue their effort after the last corner (750m), I had to start mine and I told myself that I had to hold on until the last 200 metres.”
When the sprint really opened, about 250 metres from the line, Démare immediately jumped on the wheels in front, quickly took the lead and maintained his first position until the finish line.
“The home straight felt so long to me," said Démare. "I was really afraid to get caught after my recent seven second places. I gave everything until the very end and I managed to win.
“If I had to win one race, it had to be this one. I’m really happy to finish with a victory. It’s a completely different scenario than last year and it’s not at all what I expected this morning.
“It also shows that I can be up there in several ways. We were expected, and we had a superb team race. It closes the season perfectly. That’s great.“
