Demare and Petit are both sprint specialists. Demare is a stagiaire with FDJ and came in 5th in the U23 World Champs in Geelong in 2010. He also came in 4th in the U23 Paris-Roubaix of 2009. I don’t know much more about him, but it sounds like he might be a similar rider to Thor Hushovd.
There were only 17 DNF’s and most of the field came in together in the U23 race. I don’t believe tomorrow’s Elite contest be race of attrition and the finish will most definitely come down to a bunch kick. You can see on the video however that the U23 finish was not a mass sprint and the field was strung out and split up in the final 200m. Petit started his leadout at about 220m and Demare finished it off with ~100m remaining. Even though it’s not a huge uphill finish, it’s enough to completely change the dynamics of the sprint compared to a flat finish.
My tip for tomorrow: 1. Gilbert, 2. Hushovd, 3. Cavendish.
In the medal standing after seven races, Australia leads with two gold and two bronze medals, and Britain have now won five medals.
Watch the CyclingCentral interview with Michael Hepburn.
U23 Race Results
1 Arnaud Demare (France) 3:52:16
2 Adrien Petit (France)
3 Andrew Fenn (Great Britain)
4 Rudiger Selig (Germany)
5 Marco Haller (Austria)
6 Filippo Fortin (Italy)
7 Wouter Wippert (Netherlands)
8 Alexey Tsatevitch (Russian Federation)
9 Tosh Van Der Sande (Belgium)
10 Andris Smirnovs (Latvia)
…
21 Michael Hepburn (Australia)
88 Thomas Palmer (Australia)
104 Jay Mccarthy (Australia)
105 Rohan Dennis (Australia)
106 Luke Durbridge (Australia)
DNF Richard Lang (Australia)
Junior Women Race Results
1 Lucy Garner (Great Britain) 1:46:17
2 Jessy Druyts (Belgium)
3 Christina Siggaard (Denmark)
4 Manon Souyris (France)
5 Christina Perchtold (Austria)
…
21 Jessica Mundy (Australia)
35 Allison Rice (Australia)
DNF Jessica Allen (Australia)