In the age of only 22 years, French sprinter Arnaud Demare has had very impressive first two seasons as a professional cyclist. As a neo-pro he kicked-off his career winning a stage at the Tour of Qatar and four other races. Last year he only proved his quality as a future star of the sprint, by claiming a victories at GP de Denain Porte du Hinault, 4 Jours de Dunkerque with three consecutive stage wins, Ride London Classic or Grand Prix d’Isbergues among few other races.

Together with Nacer Bouhanni, Demare had an important part in the final number of victories claimed by the French squad, and he is hungry for even more victories in 2014.

Present at the FDJ.fr team official presentation, in the interview for Cyclism’Actu young Frenchman reflected on his development over the past two seasons, as well as racing in the shadow of the most renowned sprinters, his rumored conflict with team-mate Nacer Bouhanni and aspirations regarding the 2014 season.

Feeling that he grows stronger every single year, athletic Demare is aware of his increasing potential and not afraid to fight arm in arm with the strongest sprinters of the professional peloton, in the likes of Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel, Andre Greipel, or his team-mate Nacer Bouhanni. Young Frenchman do not fear setting himself big goals as the pressure seemingly motivates his, thus clashing with his greatest rivals at the 101th edition of the Tour the France would be the most important objective of the new season.

“Now I am perfectly aware of my potential, I know I’m able to win. Back in two years, I was a neo-pro and I felt too weak to launch a sprint. Now, I take the prizes, I’m stronger and when the last kilometer arrives, I still have enough legs to push. I see that I’m constantly progressing and it’s a nice feeling.”

Unlike few other young cyclist, Demare has a very well defined racing schedule for 2014 and Frenchman faces no problems in pointing out his most important goals of the new season.

“I will kick-off the season in Qatar and Algarve, the sprinters-friendly races. I won a stage there two years ago and would be pleased to repeat that. It’s also a good preparation for the Classics, Het Volk, Kuurne, beautiful races in which I would like to rise arms as many times as possible,” Demare outlined his early season schedule

“My early season is built around the Classics and Paris-Roubaix, while the second part focuses on the Tour the France. This is the goal of the year. I should get there in a good condition. There are those cobbles in the North, so obviously it brought some particular ideas to my mind.”

Asked about picking his favourite race to win, Demare as a true sprinter is very undecisive, knowing that in this occupation it is all about numbers…

“I cannot choose particular one. I’m a winner. A Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, World Championships, Gent-Wavelgem, stage at the Tour the France. These all would be exceptional victories for me,” Demare enumerated.

Young sprinter has also confessed, that even though there is a fierce rivalry between him and his team-mate Nacer Bouhanni, all the rumors were mostly based on peoples’ fantasies and for him it is just an additional source of motivation. Nevertheless, there are not many occasions for this duo to race in the same events throughout seasons.

“I think people fantasize too much. They want it to be war between us . Nacer is a fighter but we compete together very rarely. There are no particular problems . Of course, you always want to win and when we participate in the same event at least one of us has to end up disappointed. But this is sport and luckily it was just another impulse to push harder.”