Arnaud Démare (born 26 August 1991) is a French former professional road racing cyclist.
Having turned professional in 2012 and specialising as a sprinter, Démare has taken almost 100 wins as a professional, including 10 Grand Tour stage victories – 2 at the Tour de France and 8 at the Giro d'Italia (the most by any French rider) – and he won the points classification in the Giro d'Italia in 2020 and 2022. Démare is one of five riders to have won the French National Road Race Championships three times, having won the race in 2014, 2017 and 2020. He has also won the under-23 road race at the 2011 UCI Road World Championships, and the 2016 Milan–San Remo, a cycling monument.
Career Junior and amateur career Born in Beauvais, Démare joined Team Wasquehal in 2008, and as a first-year junior rider, he won a stage at both the Tour de l'Abitibi and the Coupe des Nations Abitibi. During his second junior season in 2009, Démare won the bronze medal in the road race at the UEC European Road Championships in Belgium, and the silver medal in the road race at the UCI Junior World Championships in Russia. He also won a stage of the Tour d'Istrie in Croatia, and placed second to Guillaume Van Keirsbulck in the Paris–Roubaix Juniors.
Ageing out of juniors, Démare signed with CC Nogent-sur-Oise for the 2010 season. He won the final stage of the Coupe des nations Ville Saguenay in Canada, before winning a bronze medal at the UEC European Road Championships for the second year in a row – this time at under-23 level. Following this, he won the Grand Prix de la ville de Pérenchies in a sprint finish, and later finished fifth in the under-23 road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Australia. Having won La Côte Picarde in the spring of 2011, Démare won two stages at the Coupe des nations Ville Saguenay, before winning the Ronde Pévéloise one-day race and a stage of the Tour Alsace. These performances earned him a stagiaire role at to the end of the 2011 season, and during this time, Démare won the under-23 road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Denmark – leading home teammate Adrien Petit in the sprint finish, for a second French win in three years.
FDJ–BigMat (2012–2023) In the days after his stagiaire role with was announced, Démare was further announced to be joining the team full-time for the 2012 season.
2012–2013
Démare took his first professional victory in his first start of the 2012 season, when he won the final stage of February's Tour of Qatar. At the end of the month, Démare followed this up with a fourth-place finish in Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne, before winning Le Samyn in a sprint finish from a small group. In March, Démare won the final stage and the points classification at the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, before winning the Cholet-Pays de Loire in a sprint finish. After further fourth-place finishes at the Grand Prix de Denain and Tro-Bro Léon one-day races, Démare made his Grand Tour début at the Giro d'Italia, recording a best stage finish of fourth before abandoning ahead of the final week. Following the Giro d'Italia, Démare won the second stage of the Route du Sud, and then finished second to teammate Nacer Bouhanni in both Halle–Ingooigem and the French National Road Race Championships. He was part of the French squad that contested the road race at the London Olympics, finishing in 30th place. In August, Démare won his first UCI World Tour race, winning the sprint finish at the Vattenfall Cyclassics, ahead of local favourite André Greipel and Giacomo Nizzolo.
Having held the lead of the Three Days of De Panne for a day, Démare's first victory of the 2013 season came at April's Grand Prix de Denain, winning the sprint ahead of Bryan Coquard and Bouhanni. He then won the first three stages of the Four Days of Dunkirk, ultimately winning the race overall as well as the points and young rider classifications. In June, he took his first stage victory at a UCI World Tour stage race, winning the bunch sprint at the end of the fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse into Buochs. Aside from another World Tour stage victory at the Eneco Tour, Démare's remaining successes during the year came in one-day races – he won the RideLondon–Surrey Classic in August, and the Grand Prix d'Isbergues in September to take his tally to ten wins for the season, while also finishing on the podium at Paris–Bourges (second) and Paris–Tours (third).
2014 For the second time in three years, Démare won on the Doha Corniche with a final-stage victory at the Tour of Qatar, his first race of the season. Moving into the cobbled classics, Démare finished in the front group at Gent–Wevelgem, ultimately finishing second behind John Degenkolb – a result that left him "satisfied" prior to the Tour of Flanders and Paris–Roubaix, but only finished the latter in twelfth place. Having extended his contract with the team until the end of the 2016 season, Démare repeated his overall victory at May's Four Days of Dunkirk, where he also won the first two stages, points and young rider classifications. The following week, he won the last two stages of the Tour de Picardie to take the overall victory, and he also won the points classification at the race. With seven victories to that point in the year, Démare was selected by as their main sprinter for the Tour de France for the first time, being selected over teammate Nacer Bouhanni.
Ahead of the Tour de France, Démare took successive victories in Halle–Ingooigem and the French National Road Race Championships – finishing directly ahead of Bouhanni in the latter. Démare's best stage results at the Tour de France were a pair of third-place finishes, on stages four and twelve. Over the remainder of the 2014 campaign, Démare took a further six victories – for a final tally of fifteen wins. He won the Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen and Grand Prix d'Isbergues one-day races in September in bunch sprints, before he won the Tour de l'Eurométropole stage race the following month, along with three stages, points and young rider classifications.
2015 In contrast to his 2014 season, Démare went winless through the first few months of 2015, recording a tenth-place finish in the cobbled classics opener Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and a best result of any kind being a second place on the second stage of Paris–Nice. Démare's first wins of the season came at May's Tour of Belgium; having finished second to Tom Boonen on the first road stage, Démare then out-sprinted Boonen to win on the next two stages to move into second overall, one second off the lead. He ultimately failed to finish the final stage, losing the points classification as a result of this. These would ultimately be his only wins of the season, with a second-place stage finish at the Eneco Tour – to Boonen – being his best result for the remainder of the year.
2016 In January, Démare announced his race plans for the first half of the new season, starting his campaign on home soil at Étoile de Bessèges and La Méditerranéenne, followed by competing in the spring classics of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne, Milan–San Remo, Gent–Wevelgem, the Tour of Flanders and Paris–Roubaix, along with the Paris–Nice and Three Days of De Panne stage races. He also announced that he would skip the Tour de France and focus on the Giro d'Italia instead. He enjoyed success at La Méditerranéenne, where his squad won the race's opening team time trial and he won the following stage. Démare went on to win the first full stage of Paris–Nice, his final preparatory race for Milan–San Remo.
At Milan–San Remo, Démare crashed on the Cipressa climb with around remaining, but was able to rejoin the main field ahead of the Poggio di San Remo. He then won the final sprint to become the first French rider to win the race since Laurent Jalabert in 1995, and the first French rider to win a cycling monument since Jalabert's 1997 Giro di Lombardia victory. Démare's victory was however questioned by rival riders Matteo Tosatto and Eros Capecchi, who alleged that Démare had been assisted by a tow from an team car on the Cipressa. In the absence of any photographic or video evidence, race officials decided not to take any action. After a fifth-place finish at Gent–Wevelgem, Démare contested the Giro d'Italia for the first time since 2012, recording two second-place stage finishes, but ultimately withdrew from the race ahead of the final week. He won the final stage and the points classification at June's Route du Sud, but would not win another race until October, when he won Binche–Chimay–Binche in a two-up sprint against Zdeněk Štybar. He also recorded second-place finishes at the Brussels Cycling Classic and Paris–Tours, but ultimately finished the season with a tally of six wins.
2017 Démare won on his opening race day of the season, taking the first stage of Étoile de Bessèges in a sprint finish; he also won the fourth stage of the race in a similar fashion. He then won the opening stage of Paris–Nice in a sprint à deux against Julian Alaphilippe in Bois-d'Arcy, having followed Alaphilippe's attacking move with around remaining. He held the race lead until the stage 4 individual time trial, losing it to Alaphilippe. He was unable to defend his title at Milan–San Remo, as he finished in sixth place – in a chase group behind a lead trio that had attacked on the Poggio di San Remo. He also finished in sixth place at Paris–Roubaix, his first top-ten placing at the race, leading home the first chase group behind the five riders that competed for the race honours. In the lead up to the Tour de France, Démare took a further five victories – he won the Grand Prix de Denain and Halle–Ingooigem one-day races, a stage at both the Four Days of Dunkirk and Critérium du Dauphiné stage races, and a second French National Road Race Championships title in Saint-Omer, beating former teammate Nacer Bouhanni to the win.
Having finished second to Marcel Kittel on the second stage of the Tour de France, Démare took his first Grand Tour stage win on the fourth stage in a sprint finish in Vittel; it was the first Tour de France stage won by a Frenchman in a bunch sprint since Jimmy Casper did so in Strasbourg in 2006. Wearing the green jersey of points classification leader, Démare was also edged out by Kittel on the sixth stage into Troyes, before falling ill ahead of the stages in the Jura Mountains. On stage 8, he finished more than 37 minutes behind the stage winner, before finishing outside the time limit the following day – along with three of his teammates – eliminating them from the race. Following the Tour de France, Démare finished second to Elia Viviani at the EuroEyes Cyclassics in Hamburg, before winning the Brussels Cycling Classic in a sprint finish.
2018–2019 After finishing second to Dylan Groenewegen at Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne, Démare took his first victory of the 2018 season with an opening stage win at Paris–Nice. He took third-place finishes on consecutive March weekends at Milan–San Remo and Gent–Wevelgem, but it was not until June before he took another victory, winning the penultimate stage of the Tour de Suisse. At the Tour de France, he was third on the second and thirteenth stages, before he took his second Tour de France stage win, on stage eighteen into Pau, following a lead-out from teammate Jacopo Guarnieri. With a further third-place finish on the final stage, Démare finished third in the points classification. Having also extended his contract with until the end of 2020, Démare was second at the EuroEyes Cyclassics, before he completed a clean sweep at the Tour Poitou-Charentes en Nouvelle-Aquitaine, winning all five stages on his way to the overall victory. He took one other podium result before the end of the year, finishing second to Pascal Ackermann at the Grand Prix de Fourmies.