Arnaud Demare broke his long victory drought when he won yesterday's Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen in a sprint finish. The Frenchman praised the many youngsters that had helped him return to his winning ways.

Going into yesterday's Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen, Arnaud Demare hadn't won a race since he took his French champion's title in June. By beating Luka Mezgec and Jonas Vangenechten in a bunch kick, he finally returned to his winnig ways and may now unofficially refer to himself as the Flemish champion.

"It's true that it's fun to have a Flemish champion that is French," he said. "But it's been a long time since I was in the Junior Team Wasquehal and I have raced regularly in Belgium. I love racing in Belgium, they are real races. Each time, I am happy to win in Belgium. I'm getting a little famous among the Belgians. 
 

"We had Olivier (Le Gac) in the break so we did not chase. We heard it had split and three riders had taken off so we started to ride. Next, from ten to five kilometers from the finish, we were a little lonely. The lead-out men had to work so I was a little scared to be alone. But they did really well.

"The difference was small but the important things is to win. It could be a wheel, three bike lengths or a centimetre. A win is a win.

"The youngsters did a great job, both the stagiaires and Olivier Le Gac who has been professional since last August. Marc Saurreau and Lorenzo Manzin really provided a lot of work. Marc was back to help mee two kilometers from the finish when he was already done a lot of chasing. These are guys who already have a sense of sacrifice. They succeeded because we won. Even with a young team, we succeeded. I'm very happy.

"I'm confident for next year. They have learnt a lot of things. They understand how the train works and they're smart. In a race, they have already made much progress. They have yet to gain a little power in the legs but they already have the right automatism. The force will come later, but the main thing is to have the right automatism.

"On Sunday, I do the GP d'Isbergues, then Lichtervelde, Eurometropole Tour, Paris-Bourges and Paris-Tours."

"It was reallt fast for the first 60km," sports director Yvon Madiot said. "First we had a group with 13 riders that included Greipel (Lotto Belisol) and Breschel (Tinkoff-Saxo) but also Olivier Le Gac. Fortunately, Trek and Garmin started to chase and rode hard until 25km remained. Then I asked my riders to raise the tempo when Olivier said he started to feel tired. Anthony Geslin and the yoingsters caught the escapees with 3km to go. In the sprint, Chavanel and Mickael Delage did a good ob and Arnaud won."