Arnaud Demare (FDJ.fr) became the first winner of the RideLondon Classic when the Frenchman was delivered perfectly to the line in the final sprint on the Mall in London. He had no trouble holding off Sacha Modolo (Bardiani) and Yannick Martinez (La Pomme Marseille) at the end of a very long 221km race in the counties that surround the British capital.

The increased interest for cycling in Great Britain had spurred on the creation of a big one-dary race in the central London and today Arnaud Demare (FDJ.fr) wrote himself into the history books as the first ever winner of the RideLondon Classic. At the end of a long 221km race that took in much of the route of last year's Olympic road race, the Frenchman powered down the Mall and took a convincing win ahead of Sacha Modolo and Yannick Martinez.

Demare was delivered perfectly to the line by his teammates Geoffrey Soupe and Mickael Delage who took control of the peloton as it headed towards the finish line with less than 1km to go. When the former U23 world champion put down the hammer, no one was even close to beating him.

8 riders in the early break

The race headed down to the hilly terrain southwest of London where the riders had to tackle three laps on a circuit including the Leith Hill before ascending the Box Hill - known from last year's Olympic road race - on the run back to central London. The race was extremely aggressive from the gun and it took more than an hour for the day's early break to finally be established.

Dominique Rollin (FDJ), Ramon Sinkeldam (Argos-Shimano), Jonathan McEvoy (NetApp-Endura), Reidar Borgersen (Joker-Merida), Michael Cuming (Rapha Condor), Zico Waeytens (Topsport Vlaanderen) and Connor McConvey (Synergy Baky) headed up the road and a little later Clinton Avery (Champion System) bridged across. Those 8 rider were allowed to built up a big gap which reached the 5-minute mark when 140km still remained.

4 teams lead the chase

Behind, Sky, Vacansoleil, Team UK Youth and MTN-Qhubeka started to chase and Gabriel Rasch, Kris Boeckmans, Niklas Gustavsson and Ferekalsi Debesay did much of the early work to stabilize the gap. Up ahead, the riders battled for points on the climbs with Rollin edging out Sinkeldam in the first two sprints.

On the second time up Leith climb. McConvey lost contact with the lead group and when Waeytens put down the hammer, only Sinkeldam and Rollin could stay in his wheel. Sinkeldam was the strongest on the top while McEvoy bridged across shortly after to make it a front quartet. After a hard chase, Borgersen, Avery and Cuming also got back on while McConvey was picked up by the peloton in which La Pomme Marseille had upped the pace on the steep slopes.

Brammeier attacks

As the peloton had finished the descent, Josh Edmondson (Sky) and Frederik Veuchelen (Vacansoleil) controlled the peloton while up ahead the front group cooperated well. Matthew Brammeier (Champion System) attacked, and for a long time the Irish champion dangled in between the two main groups.

The final time up Leith Hill, Belkin really lit up the race with Jack Bobridge and Paul Martens being really aggressive on the climb. The acceleration brought down the gap to less than 3 minutes while Brammeier fell back into the peloton.

Millar and Wegmann lit up the race

Belkin stopped their effort a little later and left it to Orica-GreenEdge to control the pace but on the lower slopes of Box Hill, the action kicked off again. The Garmin duo of David Millar and Fabian Wegmann attacked and those two drew clear a small group containing the likes of Tom-Jelte Slagter (Belkin), Yoann Offredo (FDJ), Ian Bibby (Madison), Thomas Damuseau (Argos), Damiano Caruso (Cannondale) and Elliott Porter (Rapha Condor).

There was no cooperation in that group and so it was brought back together. Jack Bauer (Garmin) countered and was joined by Offredo and Simon Yates (British National Team). After a short chase, those three riders bridged across to the leaders which were now less than a minute ahead.

Two riders in the lead

Rollin sacrificed his own chances for teammate Offredo who attacked a little later with Wayetens in his wheel. Those two riders got clear while their former companions kept losing ground to the peloton.

In the main group, Orica-GreenEdge had calmed things down a bit but Josw Goncalves (La Pomme Marseille) broke the harmony. His attack drew clear a small group containing the likes of Sacha Modolo and Ben Swift (Sky) but it all came back together as there was no real cooperation.

Rostollan off in pursuit

Instead, Thomas Rostollan (La Pomme Marseille) attacked and he quickly overtook the big chase group which was gradually reeled in by the peloton. Up ahead, Offredo was doing an amazing job with Waeytens in his wheel to extend the lead back up to 1.15.

In the peloton, the chase got organized as Bardiani, Orica-GreenEdge and Sky had now joined forces. Andrea Di Corrado, Christian Meier, Sebastian Langevels, Matthew Hayman and Christian Knees did a solid job to reel in Rostollan with 24km to go.

All back together

Those 5 riders also neutralized a small attempt from a Sojasun and an IG rider and a later attack from Christophe Laborie (Sojasun) while up ahead Offredo was now starting to tire. However, the Frenchman did a fantastic job and the offensive was only neutralized 5,7km from the line.

Sam Harrison (British National Team) attacked a little late and dangled off the front for two kilometres before being brought back. Orica-GreenEdge and FDJ were now controlling the front but no team dared to take control too early.

With a little less than 2km to go, Garmin took over with Millar doing a enormous turn on the front but when the peloton passed the flamme rouge the American team had lost out to Vacansoleil. That was when Soupe and Delage kicked into action and those two riders delivered Demare to a convincing win in the first ever edition of the RideLondon Classic.

Result:

1. Arnaud Demare

2. Sacha Modolo

3. Yannick Martinez

4. Fabio Sabatini

5. Danny Van Poppel

6. Zakkari Dempster

7. Raymond Kreder

8. Christian Delle Stelle

9. Chris Sutton

10. Ben Swift