Only the win is missing. The FDJ team is on the road to success and has shown that throughout the second stage of the Three Days of De Panne which was won by Norwegian Kristoff (Katusha). Arnaud Démare ran out of åpwer in the sprint (11th) but he knows that his teammates are again ready to fight.

Behind a breakaway of twelve riders, FDJ took responsibility at the foot of Kemmelberg and approached the leaders due to an acceleration by Matthieu Ladagnous. At the bottom of the descent, a first peloton of 40 riders had significantly accelerated. Arnaud Démare were there with Matthieu Ladagnous, Mickael Delage, Sébastien Chavanel, Marc Sarreau and William Bonnet. David Boucher got back a little latter with the second group.

"Then the guys were a little too nervous and too much in the desire to do well so they took the lead 30 kilometers from the finish," said sports director Frederic Guesdon. "And then they missed the fresheness in the finale."

The sprint was not handled badly since Demare took the last corner 250 meters from the finish in the wake of Kristoff but he clearly lacked freshness in the final meters.

"All my riders in the peloton did well," said Frédéric Guesdon. "Except Johan Le Bon who is suffering and it was better for him to stop. Tomorrow, and like last year, Arnaud will not take the start of the morning stage and will take the opportunity to rest and focus on the Tour of Flanders. We will try with Marc Sarreau who worked a lot today. It will be a small test."