Arnaud Démare was locked in conversation with Jacopo Guarnieri when the lights went up after the Giro d’Italia presentation on Monday, but he will no longer be able to count on the Italian as his wingman on the road in 2023.
During this season’s Giro, Démare made a point of calling on Groupama-FDJ to renew the expiring contracts of his lead-out train. Despite a hat-trick of stages and a second maglia ciclamino, however, Démare’s request wasn’t heeded in full. Guarnieri will ride for Lotto Dstny next year, while Ramon Sinkeldam is bound for B&B Hotels.
“It was a disappointment, of course,” Démare told Cyclingnews in Milan's Teatro Lirico. “Still, I’m a competitor so now I’ll have to adapt. We still have elements from the train like Miles Scotson and Ignatas Konovalovas, and we also have young riders who will come in. I’ll be counting on them to learn quickly.”
With Thibaut Pinot and David Gaudu for company on the Groupama-FDJ roster, Démare has long co-existed with the fact that his sprint victories will always play second fiddle to the team’s overall aspirations at the Tour de France. He has raced the Tour just five times in his eleven seasons with the team and just once since he claimed the second of his two stage wins in 2018.
Yet despite regularly missing out on competing in July, Démare has delivered elsewhere through his time at the team, amassing a palmarès that includes Milan-San Remo, a hat-trick of French titles, back-to-back wins at Paris-Tours and eight stage victories at the Giro. It wasn’t enough, however, to persuade Marc Madiot to keep his train together. Groupama-FDJ’s seven new recruits for 2023, meanwhile, all come from the Continental squad.
“It’s the global vision of the team, it’s their idea. I respect their choice and the general vision,” Démare said carefully. “There are young riders who have the potential to learn, and we’ll see how that works out in the first months of the season. It will be a challenge, but without Jacopo and Raymond, I have no choice but to accept it. But I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to adapt.”
The depletion of Démare’s lead-out train hardly reads like a vote of confidence from his team, but nothing has yet been decided about his race programme for 2023. The respective routes of the Giro and Tour – and, of course, the ambitions of Pinot and Gaudu – will reveal more.
“We’ll have to analyse the Giro a bit more and see how many finishes are really possible for sprints, but I’d also like to go to the Tour de France,” said Démare, who reckoned that the Giro route offered “three or four real sprint opportunities and a lot of maybes.”
The Beauvais native, who survives short, sharp climbs well, might find more certainty in those maybes than his fellow fast men. “It’s true that I’m always better when the race is harder, like this year in Cuneo,” he said. “Sprinting when you’re already tired suits me, but it’s not ideal if it’s too hard either.”
The Grand Tours are not the only question mark in Démare’s 2023 racing programme. Having been touted as a Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders contender in his early years, the Frenchman has largely the cobbles in recent seasons in favour of focusing more fully on sprints. His recent victory over the chemins de vigne at Paris-Tours may prompt a rethink.
“I haven’t decided about the Spring yet. Missing the Classics this year has given me a bit of desire to go back to them. And winning a Classic like Paris-Tours makes me want to go back to Omloop and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, because it’s been two years since I did those races,” said Démare.
“In any case, winning Paris-Tours changes the winter for me. I’d had a lot of second and third places in September and October, so to win the biggest and nicest race I could win in the final part of the season was something that made me very happy. It puts my mind at ease, so I’ll enjoy the break and then prepare well for next year.”
