After claims made by Matteo Tosatto and Eros Capecchi that he held on to a car on the Cipressa to make it back to the peloton, Milan-Sanremo winner Arnaud Demare has hit back, labelling the two sore losers.

“I saw these little claims from the two Italians. You have bad sports and sore losers in all sports, I crashed, there was the race commissaire’s motorbike which was alongside me, so if I had cheated I would have been penalised. There was the case of [Vincenzo] Nibali in the Vuelta [a España] last year so I would have never run the risk of losing my biggest victory in my career,” Demare told France TV2.

Demare also believes that his win, which ended a 21 year drought for Frenchmen at the race and made it a decade without a home winner for Italy, is part of the reason he is being accused of cheating.

“I think they are obviously very disappointed that for the first time in 25 years a young Frenchman, 24-years-old, has come along and won on the Via Roma, in their backyard,” said Démare.

The young Frenchman says he doesn’t have to justify himself to anyone and says he knows he can really enjoy his biggest win as he has done it fair and square.

“I don’t think that I am obliged to justify myself but later I put my file on Strava, fans can see that there is no spike in speed at 80kmh like has been claimed. I know that my victory was won ‘a la pedale’ [honestly] and it’s a real pride to be able to succeed like that, following Laurent Jalabert, it’s really super for French cycling.”