Arnaud Démare wins Tour de Wallonie

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Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) sealed overall victory at the Tour de Wallonie, taking victory on the final stage 4 on the uphill finish in Erezée ahead of Philippe Gilbert (Lotto Soudal).

Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team) finished third, taking second place on the final general classification to go with it.

Démare had withstood heavy pressure in the hilly finale of the stage, with a high pace and several attacks going on the final classified climb of the Côte de Beffe at 8.5km from the finish. He and his teammates stayed calm though, steadily working their way back to the front as Jhonatan Narváez (Team Ineos) slipped away alone on descent.

The Ecuadorian's effort was a valiant one but Groupama-FDJ and AG2R La Mondiale put in the work to bring him back in the final kilometre and set up a sprint on the rise to the line.

As Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) led the way for Clément Venturini, it was Démare and Gilbert who reacted first to launch the sprint. Gilbert initially looked to have the best of the Frenchman but Démare's pure sprint speed was enough to come out of wheel and take victory.

The GC win is the 65th of Démare's career, his fourth since the restart along with two stages in Wallonie and Milano-Torino. After the finish he could be heard asking his teammates if they could do the same on Sunday for the French National Championships, a title he has taken twice before. Later in the season he's set to head to Italy for a return to the Giro d'Italia. 

How it unfolded

The final stage of the Tour de Wallonie, a hilly 199.4km run from Blegny, east of Liège, to Erezée, would see a total of seven categorised climbs on the route, and plenty more besides. The 1.6km, 8.7 per cent Côte de Beffe, 8.5km from the finish, and an uphill finish, would see the general classification decided once and for all.

A high speed characterised the early stages of the day, with two intermediate sprints inside 47km and GC contenders keen to grab some bonus seconds. Van Avermaet took the first ahead of Narváez, while a break made it away before the second sprint.

Deceuninck-QuickStep had attempted to place multiple men out front but settled for Zdenek Štybar making the move. He was joined by Jens Reynders (Hagens Berman Axeon), Scott Thwaites (Alpecin-Fenix), Andreas Kron (Riwal Readynez), Stan Dewulf (Lotto Soudal) and the Bingoal-Wallonie Bruxelles duo of Tom Paquot and Lionel Teminiaux.

The seven-man group stretched their lead to almost three minutes over the rolling hills through the middle of the stage, as CCC Team worked at the head of the peloton behind. AG2R La Mondiale and Team Ineos also helped with the pace making, while Paquot, third in the mountain rankings, grabbed as many KOM points as he could get.

Taminiaux was the first man to drop from the break, 60km from the line, while the peloton had begun to close the gap to within two minutes. At the first ascent of the first-category Côte de Beffe, with 41km left to race, the break split as Štybar, Dewulf and Kron pushed on together, leaving Paquot short of his KOM goal with two climbs remaining.

The lead trio held an advantage of a minute as they crossed the line for the first time, 32km out. Meanwhile, KOM leader Michal Gołas (Team Ineos) and Dylan Sunderland (NTT Pro Cycling) were chasing in between at 20 seconds down eventually making the junction at the 23km mark.

Team CCC, Bahrain McLaren and Team Ineos worked together in the peloton to bring the break back just before the final ascent of Beffe, 10km from the line. The hill saw race leader Démare in trouble as defending race champion Loïc Vliegen (Circus-Wanty Gobert), Jelle Vanendert (Bingoal-Wallonie Bruxelles), Narváez and Van Avermaet drove the pace up front.

Narváez attacked on the descent, while the eight-man elite group that had formed behind him were soon brought back after failing to work together. Groupama-FDJ, with Démare back at the front of the peloton, drove to try and catch Narváez and secure victory for their leader.

The Ecuadorian had done a stellar job out front alone, holding a 15-second gap into the final two kilometers, and held out until the 450-metre mark before being caught.

AG2R La Mondiale were looking for one last result, pulling the peloton towards the line, and it was Naesen who led out into the closing metres for his sprinter Venturini. Démare and Gilbert were the quickest to react as the sprint started though, with the Frenchman getting the better of the veteran Belgian to take his second win of the race and secure overall victory.