Bryan Coquard (Europcar) brought Arnaud Demare's (FDJ) recent run of success to an end when he beat his French rival in the bunch sprint on the first stage of the Tour de Picardie. The Europcar rider narrowly held off his compatriot in the final dash to the line to win the first stage of the three-day race and take the first leader's jersey.

One week ago Arnaud Demare seemed to be almost unbeatable in the sprint at the 4 Days of Dunkirk but today Bryan Coquard proved that there are other French sprinters who mean serious business. One year after beating Marcel Kittel in a sprint in the Tour de Picardie, he kicked the 2014 edition of the race off in the best possible fashion by beating Demare in the bunch sprint that ended stage one.

The three-day race is made up of three mostly flat stages that suit the fast finishers perfectly and is ususally decided by bonus seconds. Hence, it was no surprise that it all came down to a bunch sprint in the opening stage and here Coquard emerged as the fastest.

Earlier on, a four rider break with Philippe Gilbert (BMC) who uses the race to get back into competition mode, dominated the proceedings and the former world champion was rewarded for his efforts by taking the first mountains jersey in the race. However, FDJ were intent on a sprint finish and they brought it all back together to the expected bunch sprint.

Bouhanni beat Demare to take his second ever stage victory in the race while Ramon Sinkeldam (Giant-Shimano) completed the podium. As Demare scored bonus seconds in the intermediate sprints, however, he heads into tomorrow's second stage with a very narrow 1-second lead over the FDJ sprintr.

The second leg is another mostly flat affair but with four smaller climbs, the terrain is a bit more rolling. However, it should be nothing to challenge the sprinters and another bunch sprint is expected.

A flat stage

The 68th edition of the Tour de Picardie kicked off with a 191km stage from Fort-Mahon to Estrees-Saint-Denis. With only one small climb in the first half of the race and mostly flat roads, it was expected that the sprinters would take the spotlight right from the beginning of the race.

Nonetheless, the peloton was in no mood to let the fast finishers have it their own way and it was a very fast start to the stage, with several attacks being launched in the early part. Julien Antomarchi (La Pomme) seemed to be taking off in solo break when he attacked at the 23km mark but he was brought back a little later by the fast-moving peloton.

Gilbert goes clear

Finally, the elastic snapped when Gilbert, Tim Declercq (Topsport Vlaanderen), Nikolas Maes (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Christope Laporte (Cofidis) took off. At the 50km mark, they were 1 minute ahead of the peloton and as the main group slowed down a bit, the gap reached 4.45 at the 65km mark.

After 71.5km of racing, Gilbert beat Maes and Laporte in the only KOM sprint to become the first leader of the mountains classification while behind, FDJ started to chase. The French team put a few riders on the front and with 70km to go, they had the gap down to 2.50.

Demare wins intermediate sprint

With 48km to go, Maes beat Gilbert in the first intermediate sprint but at this point the gap was down to 1.55 and it was clear that the break was not going to stay away. The break was finally swallowed up and it was a 40-rider peloton that started the final 10km lap. A little earlier, Demare had shown his intentions by beating Kenneth Vanbilsen (Topsport) and Gianni Meersman (OPQS) in the final intermediate sprint.

FDJ and Europcar led the peloton for most of the circuit as all was set for a big battle between two of the future French sprinters. In the end, Coquard emerged as the fastest while Demare had to settle for second.