Demare wins Halle-Ingoogiem

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Arnaud Démare claimed his eight win of 2014 and third career victory on Belgian soil as he outsprinted Kris Boeckmans (Lotto-Belisol) and Michael Van Staeyen (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) to victory in the 199km Halle-Ingooigem.

The traditional warm up race for the Belgian national championships also served as a warm up for Demaré who has set his sights on conquering the 2 51.7km French national road race in Futuroscope on Sunday.

"I am very pleased with this victory," Démare said after the win. "Chapeau to my teammates who did a great job of managing the race from the first kilometre and not allowing too large a breakaway to succeed.

"Everyone did their job and now I turn my focus to the nationals on Sunday which is a course that suits me. After that, I make my debut at the Tour de France for the first time which I'm really happy about, especially since I don't often have the opportunity to race against the top sprinters in Mark Cavendish, André Greipel and Marcel Kittel."

Second placed Boeckmans was happy with his result as he gets closer to his first win of 2014 having placed fourth three times at the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey and finished runner-up on stage 3 at the Critérium du Dauphiné after a photo finish was needed to decide the winner.

"I'm very happy with second place," Boeckmans said. "The team worked well for me in the last two kilometres but against someone like Démare, there is nothing to do. It is really hard.

"We'll see how the Belgian nationals go on Sunday, I do not know my role yet but after that I'll have a little rest."

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