Milan-San Remo winner Arnaud Démare hit back at the critics that claimed he took a tow from his team car on the Cipressa while chasing back from a crash, saying he has nothing to be sorry for.
"I have done nothing wrong," he said to L'Equipe. "There are judges in cycling. If I had done something forbidden, I would have been disqualified. Because [Michael] Matthews didn't raise his arms in victory like me, we don't care if he took shelter in the caravan. It's part of cycling and always has been: we profit from the draft of the cars. They block the wind. It is not forbidden."
Both Démare and his FDJ directeur sportif Frédéric Guesdon denied allegations from Matteo Tossato (Tinkoff) and Eros Capecchi (Astana) that after his crash with 30km to go, the FDJ car helped tow the eventual race winner back to the peloton on the Cipressa.
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Sporza reports that a race official saw Démare still chasing in the cars at the top of the Cipressa, and the data on his Strava file appears to back up this fact.
"I've seen this small polemic," Démare said in and interview on Stade 2. "There really are some bad losers in every sport! I crashed and I had the commissaire's motor with me. If I'd cheated, I'd have been penalised. Nibali was heavily sanctioned during the last Vuelta, so I wouldn't have taken the risk of losing the biggest race of my career.
"This polemic is fair enough. It's natural that they don't like seeing a 24 year-old French rider winning their race."
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