9th, 6th, 2nd and finally 1st ...... After many near misses, Arnaud Demaret (Groupama-FDJ) finished the 2022 Tour de Pollogne with a brilliant solo sprint, unmatched by his rivals.

This year's sprints in Pollogne tended to be chaotic, with few chances to lead out. Perhaps trying to avoid such a situation, Demare went for the line from the back, despite the lack of support.

Nevertheless, on a wide tree-lined road near the center of Krakow, DeMare moved first to the left side barrier and then back to the center of the course, a move that the 30-year-old timed perfectly to take his fifth win of the season.

Grupama-FDJ's DeMare later said that he prefers the classic lead-out to surfing away from his rivals. However, his performance in the final stage of Pollogne proved that DeMare has the versatility and experience to handle such tricky scenarios with devastating effect, coupled with an unwavering determination to win, even if his last three attempts at Pollogne had all ended in near-misses. [I like to run with my teammates Jacopo [Guarnieri] and Bram [Werten].

"I was about 20th or 25th with a kilometer to go, but I finally found my way.

On Friday, Demare beat two prior stage winners from Pologna, Olaf Kooij (Jumbo Visma), the winner of the opening stage in Lublin, and Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious), who had dominated Demare in Rzeszow 48 hours earlier.

Demare, who won the points jersey and multiple stages at this spring's Giro d'Italia, was particularly pleased with his victory in his first race back after the summer break, but was also pleased with his overall performance throughout the week.

This season's Pollogne featured five group sprints in seven days, most of them on days with a lot of climbing. Even on Friday, when the finale was mostly flat, there were nearly 2,000 meters of vertical climbing and a first class mountain early in the day.

"We've worked very hard on other stages that were hilly and punchy. In Gruppetto, I haven't ridden a day. If you want to train your strength in the hills, Pologne is ideal for that."

"On top of that, there were plenty of opportunities for sprinters this week.

Of these challenges, the Vuelta a España was the first time De Mare competed in it last year and finished, but without any notable high scores. Instead, he heads to the European Championships and the Bemer Cyclassics for the first time in a decade, since his breakthrough in a one-day race in Germany in 2012.

Later in the fall, Demare will take on the end-of-season one-day races in France and Belgium. But whatever happens in the second half of the season, Pollogne has led this Groupama-FDJ pro to a great start.