After yesterday's disappointment, Arnaud Demare (FDJ) bounced back with a great sprint performance in today's second stage of the Tour de Picardie to take both the stage win and the leader's jersey. The Frenchman admitted that he had been inspired by the Giro wins of his teammate Nacer Bouhanni.

It is no secret that their is an internal rivalry in the FDJ team between the two star sprinters Arnaud Demare and Nacer Bouhanni. The latter had been extremely frustrated to be left off the Milan-Sanremo roster as the team chose to focus entirely on the former in the Italian classic and he is widely rumoured to be leaving the squad at the end of the season.

However, the pair may alos be pushing each other to a higher level as it was evidenced earlier today when Arnaud Demare won the second stage and took the overall lead in the Tour de Picardie. Having been beaten by Bruan Coquard 24 hours earlier, he returned to the fantastic form that had seen him win the overall at the Four Days of Dunkirk just a few weeks ago when he held off Ramon Sinkeldam in the uphill sprint.

Afterwards, he admitted that he had been fired up by Nacer Bouhanni's two wins in the Giro d'Italia.

"It was an uphill sprint that I really liked," he told L'Equipe. "I was a bit tired after the Four Days of Dunkirk but that's part of the game to work on fatigue to prepare for the Tour de France which is the main objective of my second part of the season. 

"When I race, I try to win. I came here with the ambition of winning a stage. When I see Nacer (Bouhanni) win in the Giro, I think it's doable. "