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Arnaud Démare discussion thread

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Sprinting has really died in the ass. Used be competitive

People forget that there was an extended period not very long ago when Tyler Farrar was the number 2 sprinter in the world. And that during the Cav-Kittel-Greipel period just after that the field under the big three was generally dire.

2020 sprint competition is weaker than 2018-2019 because one top six or seven guy put another one into the barriers and another got Covid. It’s still strong by historical standards. The Giro field is poor aside from Demare, but that’s largely because a couple of guys who would have been serious contenders in recent years are barely capable of contesting. it’s not as if Giro sprints have ever been reliably competitive anyway.
 
Sprinting has really died in the ass. Used be competitive

How will you compare it to 2012 Vuelta when Degenkolb regularly beat aging sprinters, leadout men, Valverde, and some random climbing domestic to the top 10 of bunch sprints? I can't really remember who's his closest competition back then, Liquigas Viviani? Bouhanni? But his dominance - he's not even thought as top 4 or 5 sprinters at that time - and the order of stages in that Vuelta made sprint stages such real weird distractions I recall.
 
How will you compare it to 2012 Vuelta when Degenkolb regularly beat aging sprinters, leadout men, Valverde, and some random climbing domestic to the top 10 of bunch sprints? I can't really remember who's his closest competition back then, Liquigas Viviani? Bouhanni? But his dominance - he's not even thought as top 4 or 5 sprinters at that time - and the order of stages in that Vuelta made sprint stages such real weird distractions I recall.
Or 2017 when Trentin won every single bunch sprint in the race. I mean, he’s a good racer and all, and he was riding for Quickstep at the time. But every single bunch sprint in the race? Trentin?
 
What I've noticed with Demare is that he needs an entire team dedicated to him. Every race this season he's been surrounded by the same guys - Guarnieri Sinkeldam, Scotson etc. Works great for the sprints, but when Demare's involved you can guarantee FDJ will be invisible in any non sprint stage.
 
What I've noticed with Demare is that he needs an entire team dedicated to him. Every race this season he's been surrounded by the same guys - Guarnieri Sinkeldam, Scotson etc. Works great for the sprints, but when Demare's involved you can guarantee FDJ will be invisible in any non sprint stage.
I think that's more of a team choice than an actual necessity. Remember Groupama told him he wasn't going to the Tour, which was obviously disappointing for him, so he'd get full support at the Giro. I believe just Demare plus Guarnieri and Konovalovas, and perhaps Sinkeldam, would still be more than enough for Demare to clean up at a race with a sprint field like this Giro. The reality is Groupama doesn't have a lot of star riders, and with Pinot and Gaudu injured after the Tour, and Küng, Madouas and Molard riding the classics, I think it was an obvious choice to send a fully dedicated sprint team. The only outlier is perhaps Frankiny who got some freedom to go into the breakaways.
 
View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRQ71HKlMTe/?utm_medium=copy_link

Hyper proud to be featured on the new Cycling Monopoly game box thanks to Groupama! Outing planned in summer 2022….

Here’s something I don’t think I was ever going to see.

There's also a Gilbert/Evenepoel version for the Belgian market.

But here I guess you have to balance the conflicts between waiting for the final sprint and the urge to attack from the very start, the sticky bottles versus the messy swerving and whether you should celebrate before or after line.
 
Demare is an interesting case - OTL in his last two participations in the TDF which is a worry, yet he can finish the Giro which has a harder parcours - It's a strange one.
He has DNFed in the 2012 Giro, 2016 Giro, (and he was trying to finish those Giro’s, not withdraw for a later objective) 2017 Tour, and this one. Potentially his crash could have been a reason why he couldn’t finish but he always seems to struggle. Even with the crashes though Bouhanni was able to go further and Greipel and Cav are a till in the race. That’s with Greipel DNFing 2018 and 2020 Tour. Maybe the faster pace tires him out more on top of the injury.
 
He has DNFed in the 2012 Giro, 2016 Giro, (and he was trying to finish those Giro’s, not withdraw for a later objective) 2017 Tour, and this one. Potentially his crash could have been a reason why he couldn’t finish but he always seems to struggle. Even with the crashes though Bouhanni was able to go further and Greipel and Cav are a till in the race. That’s with Greipel DNFing 2018 and 2020 Tour. Maybe the faster pace tires him out more on top of the injury.

He doesn't have Declerq to shepherd him under the time limits...

Demare can often get over pretty hilly courses to contest a sprint. I think this time he's just pulled the plug after failing to make an impression.
 
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He has DNFed in the 2012 Giro, 2016 Giro, (and he was trying to finish those Giro’s, not withdraw for a later objective) 2017 Tour, and this one. Potentially his crash could have been a reason why he couldn’t finish but he always seems to struggle. Even with the crashes though Bouhanni was able to go further and Greipel and Cav are a till in the race. That’s with Greipel DNFing 2018 and 2020 Tour. Maybe the faster pace tires him out more on top of the injury.

I would discount the 2012 Giro as a DNF as he was in the infancy of his career - I suspect it may be more to do with pressure of the TDF.
 
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Some wins are special, when guts, panache, perfect execution, or even acrobatics shine for all to see. Today's win was a special win. Bravo Nono, another shiny feather on his chapeau.
The slow motion replay was super scary, I can't understand how he did not fall by touching the wheel just in front of him ... Multiple times !! He was so close.
Being able to do that when going 100% effort is really incredible. Such a different sport that GC riders, but really impressive nonetheless.

Very happy for Demarre, he proved many people wrong.
 

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