2023-06-24 03:36:56
It is by a tweet this Friday that the Groupama-FDJ team announced this Friday the withdrawal of Arnaud Démare for the French Championships which take place on Sunday June 25 in Cassel. “Arnaud Démare will not start on Sunday, the team having granted his request to withdraw the French Championship from its program”, writes Groupama-FDJ.
Arnaud Démare will not start on Sunday, the team having acceded to his request to withdraw the French Championship from its program.
— Groupama-FDJ Cycling Team (@GroupamaFDJ) June 23, 2023
An absence that can be understood on a strictly sporting level. On a course intended for punchers and climbers, with 4,000 m of positive elevation, the sprinter, titled in 2014, 2017 and 2020, had almost no chance of winning a 4th French champion jersey. But Démare’s package also comes in a particular context for him. At the end of May, during the Boucles de la Mayenne, a race in which he won the second stage, his manager Marc Madiot told him that his contract with Groupama-FDJ, the only team he had known since his professional debut in 2012, would not be renewed at the end of this season. Then he learned that he would not be in the selection for the Tour de France.
Internally, we refute the thesis “of a sulk”
In an interview with the Team, he did not hide his anger: “I am disgusted because I worked for, I made concessions this winter knowing that I would have a teammate with me for the sprint . I am also disgusted, when I think of all that I have brought to this team, in the company of the “Trèfle” generation with Thibaut Pinot and Arthur Vichot. The team has grown thanks to us but I know that next year I won’t be there. »
The divorce is clearly consummated between him and the leaders of his team. However, internal sources refute the thesis of “a sulk” on his part. “Of course he was affected by his non-selection for the Tour de France. But he is not in a moral and mental state to participate in these French Championships. He is very marked by the death of Gino Mader, last week at the Tour de Suisse. Everyone knows that Arnaud is ultra-sensitive and that he lives things on edge, ”we are told within Groupama-FDJ.
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