After two frustrating sprints, Arnaud Demare (FDJ) ended the Route du Sud on a high as he emerged as the fastest in the bunch sprint on the final day of the race. After a great lead-out from Yoann Offredo and Mickael Delage, he held off Yohann Gene (Direct Energie) and Stephane Poulhies (Armee) in the final dash to the line. Nairo Quintana and Marc Soler finished safely to make it a 1-2 for Movistar in the GC while a crash cost Hugh Carthy (Caja Rural) the third place which was taken by Nicolas Edet (Cofidis).

After a frustrating end to the Giro d’Italia which he had to leave due to illness, Arnaud Demare hoped to return to his winning ways at the Route du Sud which he uses as a final preparation for another short at the French tricolor jersey. Unfortunately, the start didn’t do much good to his confidence as he was up against an unstoppable Bryan Coquard in the first two sprint stages of the race.

Today he had a final chance to get that elusive victory in the last stage which was expected to be for the fast guys. As Coquard left the race during yesterday’s wet queen stage, Demare went into the day as the overwhelming favourite and he didn’t disappoint. After hard work from his FDJ team all day, he proved his speed in the finale as he beat Yohann Gene and Stephane Poulhies to take his first win since Milan-Sanremo.

The other big winner was Nairo Quintana who was safely escorted by his teammates and even followed some attacks on the final climb before arriving safely in the bunch to win the race for the second time. His teammate Marc Soler made it a 1-2 for Movistar while a crash in the final 5km cost Hugh Carthy the final spot on the podium which was taken by Edet.

After yesterday’s queen stage, the riders were back in flatter terrain for stage 5 which was a circuit race that saw the riders cover 8 laps of a 17.6km circuit around the city of Gers-Astarac Arros en Gascogne for an overall distance of 154.8km. It included an early uncategorized ascent and the small category 4 climb of Cote de Moncassin 4.5km from the finish. Then it was a fast downhill run to the line.

It had been a mass exodus yesterday but there were no non-starters when the riders gathered for what was expected to be a hectic and intense circuit race. Unlike yesterday, the weather was great as they headed through the neutral zone.

Right from the start, there were lots of attack but it didn’t take long for the early break to be formed. Already after a few minutes of racing, Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie), Remy Di Gregorio (Delko), Nico Denz (Ag2r) and Guillaume Levarlet (Auber 93) got clear. Jerome Mainard (Armee) tried to bridge across but he never got an advantage of more than 5 seconds before he was brought back.

The gap stayed around 20 seconds for a while before the gap started to widen and at the end of the first lap, the peloton had slowed down. The gap was 2.10 as Movistar led the peloton across the line for the first time.

At the end of the second lap, the gap had gone out to 3.00 and it had even reached 4.10 after another lap of the circuit. Di Gregorio led Chavanel and Levarlet across the line to win the intermediate sprint.

Imanol Erviti, Jose Herrada and Rory Sutherland were riding on the front for Movistar, keeping the gap at around 4 minutes as they entered the final 90km. They slowly started to reduce the gap and had brought it down to 3.30 during the next 20km.

With 70km to go, FDJ put Olivier Le Gac on the front and the gap immediately came down a lot faster. Armee also got involved in the chase with a single rider and as Movistar contributed, it had dropped to 2.20 when Chavanel beat Di Gregorio, Denz and Levarlet in the first KOM sprint win 63km to go.

With 50km to go, Movistar had stopped their work but Le Gac and the Armee rider had already reduced the advantage to just 1.45. It dropped to 1.20 during the next five kilometres but then the escapees managed to respond and the gap stayed around that mark for a while. It was still 1.15 when Di Gregorio led Denz and Levarlet across the line to win the final intermediate sprint and start the penultimate lap.

With 30km to go, FDJ added more firepower to the chase as Lorrenzo Manzin came to the fore and an extra Armee rider also started to work. That paid off as the gap was soon reduced to just 30 seconds.

As they hit the second climb for the penultimate time with 25km to go, Di Gregorio launched a first attack but it turned out to be a bad idea. When Levarlet countered, only Chavanel could follow but the group came back together before they got to the top where Di Gregorio led Levarlet and Denz over the top to win the second KOM sprint.

Movistar had no interest in attack so Jose Herrada hit the front of the peloton and his fast prevented anybody from trying a move. As he reached the top, he had reduced the gap to just 20 seconds and then left it to Manzin to continue the work.

Imanol Erviti hit the front for Movistar and kept the gap at 20 seconds as they entered the final 20km. Moments later Chavanel led the front group across the line to start the final lap while Erviti, an Armee rider and Manzin were back on the front for the peloton as they passed 20 seconds later.

Knowing that he was the poorest climber, Denz tried to attack and only Di Gregorio tried to close the gap while Chavanel and Levarlet decided to sit up. The Delko rider never made it back and so he was also swallowed up, leaving it to Denz to press on.

As they hit the first climb, an Auber 93 rider attacked and he was joined by an Euskadi rider, Julien Berard (Ag2r), Christian Mager (Stölting), Erviti and Manzin. However, the latter two were just marking the move so there was no great cooperation and when they were brought back, Erviti again started to ride tempo.

Garikoitz Bravo (Euskadi) launched the next attack but he didn’t get much of an advantage as Manzin and Erviti were riding hard on the front. Hence, he was brought back just as they started the descent.

Denz crested the summit with a small advantage of around 10 seconds but he was losing ground as Manzin, Erviti and two Armee riders were trading pulls on the front. With 12km to go, it was all over for the German and it was all back together.

Manzin, Erviti and Mainard kept riding in the front while the sprint teams started to gather for the sprint. Bruno Armirail (Armee) also came to the fore just before they entered the final 10km. As they approached the climb, the fight for position intensified and it was Francois Bidard (Ag2r) who took a massive turn on the front before Manzin hit the front to end his work.

Julien Berard (Ag2r) hit the front with 8km to go before Erviti upped the pace for Movistar. Yoann Offredo (FDJ) made sure that the pace was kept high until Dayer Quintana brought his brother Nairo to the front with 6km to go.

As they hit the climb, Loic Chetout (Cofidis) attacked but it was Quintana himself who made sure that the Frenchman didn’t get clear. However, he was unable to follow when Julien Loubet (Fourtneo-Vital Concept) countered the move.

As Quintana sat down and started to lose ground, Loubet increased his advantage and instead Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) and Benoit Vaugrenard (FDJ) came flying. They caught Loubet just as they crested the summit but there was no great cooperation as Vaugrenard refused to work.

While Delko and Cofidis started to chase with Quentin Pacher, Delio Fernandez, Julien El Fares and Arnold Jeannesson, drama happened as Hugh Carthy (Caja Rural) crashed just before the 3km to go mark, meaning that he lost his third place overall. The peloton was not slowing down to wait for him and Delko and Cofidis brought the front trio back with 2.3km to go.

The Delko riders swung off and left it to Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) to lead the peloton under the 2km to go banner. That was the signal for FDJ to start their lead-out as Offredo, Michael Delage and Demare hit the fron.

Offredo led the group under the flamme rouge and kept riding on the front until less than 500m remained. Delage did the perfect lead-out and Demare quickly responded when Yoann Gene tried to anticipate him. The pair went head to head but slowly the FDJ rider started to distance his Direct Energie rival who had to settle for second. Stephane Poluhies paid his teammates back for their hard work by taking third.

Quintana finished safely in the bunch to secure the overall win with a 36-second advantage over Soler, with Edet being 30 seconds further adrift in third. Demare won the points jersey and Quentin Jauregui (Ag2r) was the best climber. Soler was the best young rider and Movistar won the teams classification.

With the Route du Sud done and dusted, the attention in France turns to the national championships which take place during the next week. Then it is time for the biggest even of them all, the Tour de France, which kicks off on July 2.