Arnaud Démare (FDJ) kicked off his season with a commanding victory in the opening stage of Etoile de Bessèges, handily out-sprinting Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) with Roy Jans (WB Veranclassic) in third in the bunch kick.

"To start like this, it's awesome," Démare said according to DirectVelo. "It's good for morale to lift the arms! I knew I was good in training but once again, in the race, it's something else... It's good to have applied the plans made in training."

Démare praised his teammates, some of whom are newcomers to the team and have only worked on the lead-out in training.

"We really took the lead 3km from the finish. Kono (Ignatas Konovalovas) and Olivier (Le Gac) led the chase. Davide (Cimolai) took control until 2500m, with Micka (Delage) on his wheel. They stretched the peloton out. We were well positioned in the wheels. Marc (Sarreau) took over from Mickael. Jacopo (Guarnieri) was my booster. He went at 300 meters.

The Frenchman said the Lotto Soudal and Katusha trains put up a good fight, and he was able to win this time, but wants it to be consistently good. "The level of the train was not yet perfect," he said. The team will continue to work toward perfecting its lead-out this week in France before heading to Volta ao Algarve, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Paris-Nice before the all-important defense of Milan-San Remo.

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