Arnaud Démare to retire just short of 100 career wins

“At the end of this season, after Paris-Tours, I will turn the page on my professional career,” Démare wrote on social media on Thursday.

“The time has come. I started cycling when I was 6 years old. I was lucky enough to live my dream, win major races and proudly represent French cycling at the highest level. I never imagined I would achieve all this.”

Like Alexander Kristoff, Démare will finish his career just shy of a century of victories. The 34-year-old has claimed 97 wins across his career, including Milan-San Remo in 2016, two stages of the Tour de France and eight stages of the Giro d’Italia.

Démare signalled his quality by sprinting to victory in the under-23 road race at the 2011 World Championships in Copenhagen. He turned professional with FDJ the following year, and he got off to a fast start with victories at the Tour of Qatar, Le Samyn and the Hamburg Cyclassics in his debut season.

His early seasons were marked by an internecine rivalry with Nacer Bouhanni for the status of FDJ’s lead sprinter, with Démare eventually winning out after his contemporary left for Cofidis.

Démare won the first of two French titles in 2014, and he enjoyed his finest moment in 2016, when he sprinted to victory at Milan-San Remo after being held up by a crash ahead of the Cipressa.

His first Tour stage win in Vittel in 2017 was overshadowed by the finishing straight clash between Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan, but Démare added a second in 2018.

In subsequent seasons, FDJ would deploy Démare to the Giro d’Italia as they built their Tour team around Thibaut Pinot. He would go on to win eight stages in the corsa rosa, and he claimed the points classification in 2020 and 2022. The Beauvais native also won Paris-Tours in both 2021 and 2022. 

Démare made a mid-season transfer to Arkéa in 2023 after he was controversially omitted from Groupama-FDJ’s Tour selection. He would go on to win four races with the Breton team, but he endured disappointment in each of his Tour de France appearances in their colours.

The Arkéa-B&B Hotels team looks set to disband at the end of 2025 following the withdrawal of both title sponsors, and Démare confirmed his retirement on Thursday. Earlier this week, Adrien Petit of Intermarché-Wanty, Démare’s lead-out man from the Copenhagen Worlds, bade farewell to cycling at Binche-Chimay-Binche.

“The competitive spirit will always remain within me,” Démare wrote. “You will still see me wearing a race number, in sport in general, simply for the pleasure of it. I am eager to learn new things, with a thousand ideas in my head, ready to discover new horizons.”