Arnaud Demare will be one of the favourites for today’s Gent Wevelgem due to his fast finish but he knows that positioning will be key to help him win the race.

“There are a lot of teams who want a bunch sprint. In the sprint there’s [John] Degenkolb and [André] Greipel. I’ve already beaten Greipel and with Degenkolb it’ll be mano a mano. I go for the win,” Démare said, sounding very confident.

He believes that the double ascent of the Kemmelberg will not put pay to his race and that he will need to be well positioned for the race’s big climb. 

“It can be a sprint of fifty riders but the two times I’ve been here there’s been a group of ten riders ahead. We have to make sure there’s no group ahead of the peloton. We put a lot of our cards on me but if a group of 10-15 guys goes, we have to be there too. We need to be attentive on the key points.”

After Milan-Sanremo, Demare opted to miss Dwars door Vlaanderen and E3 as a result of the poor weather in Italy as the young Frenchman on the FDJ team needed a break.

“But we can put on sun cream today,” he smiled. “It’s a big difference compared to San Remo. We all suffered a lot in San Remo. I didn’t participate in E3 so now I’m more fresh for this one.”