Already titled last year, the Frenchman won the sprint at Paris-Tours on Sunday.
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The pass of two for Arnaud Démare. The French rider from Groupama FDJ won Paris-Tours for the second time in a row on Sunday 9 October. At the end of the 213.5 km linking Chartres to Tours, he won the sprint ahead of Edward Theuns and Sam Bennett. Démare, who was among the favorites in his own succession, ends his season like last year with a success, the 7th in 2022.
“It’s different this year, we were expected. We had a great team race. I’m very happy. I made seven second places in two months, if there was one that had to be won, it was that one. I had a great end to the season,” reacted the 31-year-old Picard, who thus closes a great 2022 season, where he will have won three stage victories on the Giro, becoming the French rider who has most often raised his arms on the Tour of Italy.
Three other Frenchmen, Sandy Dujardin, Matis Louvel and Hugo Hofstetter, are in the top 10 of this Paris-Tours. The Norwegian Jonas Abrahamsen distinguished himself by performing a number to be caught only 7 kilometers from the finish.
It was also the last career race for Philippe Gilbert, who finished in 27th position. The 40-year-old Belgian, second in Binche-Chimay-Binche on October 4, had won the event twice, in 2008 and 2009. Indirectly, Arnaud Demare paid tribute to him by becoming the first to win the Classic of Dead Leaves twice years in a row, since… Philippe Gilbert.