Tour of Italy: A record for Démare, which erases Hinault and Anquetil – All the sports news on Orange

Guillaume MARION, Media365: published on Thursday May 12, 2022 at 10:25 p.m. A new sprint winner this Thursday during the 6th stage of the Tour of Italy, Arnaud Démare continues to show great things on the transalpine roads, as in 2020. , the cyclamen jersey suits him perfectly. After having distinguished himself in the Tour of Italy in 2020 (four victories and 1st place in the points classification), Arnaud Démare seems to be back on the same bases two years later. Indeed, if the Frenchman was beaten by nothing by the Briton Mark Cavendish (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) during the 3rd stage of the Giro 2022 in Hungary, the sprinter from the Groupama-FDJ formation has since put everyone agree by being the strongest at the finish of the last two stages, in Messina (5th) and Scalea (6th). The latter notably disgusted specialists of the genre, such as Fernando Gaviria, Giacomo Nizzolo or Caleb Ewan. Now, the native of Beauvois now has seven successes in this Grand Tour, one more than Bernard Hinault and Jacques Anquetil. “A lot of people underestimate me in what I was able to do, this is my 86th professional victory and my 7th victory in a Tour of Italy, it’s the best score for a Frenchman, it’s huge”, has also launched Démare, after his victory of the day, at the microphone of Eurosport.
Starts soon at the level of Merckx? With 147 points, the French therefore currently occupies the lead in the points classification, in particular ahead of the Eritrean Biniam Girmay (94). Keeping the cyclamen jersey until Verona could quickly become an objective for the Groupama-FDJ rider. “The day was rather calm, I felt that everyone was still very fresh. The team did a great job to keep me up front in the final. (…) Is this an objective? I think about it more and more but I know that a Grand Tour is long. A points classification is won over time and we are only in the first week, also explained the Frenchman, in remarks collected by L’Equipe. You have to be very humble in the face of this objective. We are never safe from failure. I have experienced several great Tours, I know the difficulty that still awaits me. “If Démare were to win the points classification for the second time in the Tour of Italy, he would notably equal Eddy Merckx and Nizzolo on the list and would come back to within two units of the record, held by the Italians Francesco Moser and Giuseppe Saronni.