When Arkéa–B&B Hotels were setting out Arnaud Démare's race schedule for 2025, the WorldTour event of the Tour of Guangxi was the final race they had in mind for the French sprinter, however knowing that this season was to be his last Démare had his heart set on a different ending to the story of his 14-year WorldTour career.
"I said ‘no, don't take me to China, I want to finish at Paris-Tours.’ It was a symbolic race for me even before winning it," Démare said in a release from the organisers of Sunday's 211.6km race .
"I wasn't necessarily a fan of the new layout at the start. But I learned to love it and I won it twice in the end [2021, 2022]. It's a great race. I had to finish here."
The eight-time Giro d'Italia stage winner, two-time Tour de France stage victor, three-time French champion and Milan-San Remo winner will be getting a home farewell with his parents, wife, daughter and sister there to witness it.
The rider who raced the majority of his career for FDJ will close it out with Arkéa-B&B Hotels – a team that is also drawing to an end – in a squad with Pierre Thierry, Rémi Lelandais, Jenthe Biermans and Florian Sénéchal. It will be Démare's 11th time on the start line of Paris-Tours, where he has been on the podium four times.
"Obviously, I feel a little strange. It's the end of something, the end of a beautiful story," said Démare. "It was important for me to finish at Paris-Tours. I am a very emotional person, it will be hard for me to hold back."
The retirement from professional racing comes at the end of a career with 97 wins and a yearly victory tally that consistently delivered multiple victories, with the only exception being this one.
Démare came close both at the start of the year with second places at Étoile de Bessèges and then also more recently at Tour Poitou-Charentes and the 34-year-old doesn't appear to have any expectations of capturing a victory in his last showing either.
He will be lining up for the event, which this year finishes on the Boulevard Béranger, in a packed field including defending champion Christophe Laporte and his Visma- Lease a Bike teammate Olav Kooij, along with Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) and 2024 runner-up Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek).
Démare will be facing that formidable group of competitors after what hasn't exactly been smooth sailing through the last month.
"I'm not in great shape. I got sick after the Tour Poitou-Charentes. I don't know what I had, it's taking time to come back, even if I've been feeling a little better for a week," he said. "But to say that I'll be one of the favourites... I'm a little frustrated that my energy isn't up to what I've experienced. So I'm going to enjoy it differently."
