Arnaud Demare wins Tour de Wallonie after sprinting to second stage victory

Updated 19/08/2020 at 15:26 GMT

Arnaud Demare not only preserved his lead but won the final stage of the Tour de Wallonie to take general classification victory in Belgium.

Philippe Gilbert of Belgium and Team Lotto Soudal / Arnaud Demare of France and Team Groupama - FDJ

Image credit: Getty Images

The Groupama-FDJ rider, who also won the second stage on Monday, sprinted to victory when pipping Philippe Gilbert to the line.

Tour de Wallonie

Arnaud Demare takes final stage and overall victory at Tour de Wallonie

00:02:13

19/08/2020 at 16:08

Demare headed into the final stage with a 16-second lead over Amaury Capiot and James Fouche, with a host of riders including Greg van Avermaet a second further back.

Arnaud Demare takes final stage and overall victory at Tour de Wallonie

Heading into the final 30km lap it was the quintet of Zdenek Stybar, Stan Dewulf, Dylan Sunderland, Michal Golas and Andreas Lorentz Kron who were out in front as Demare sought help from his Groupama-FDJ team-mates to stay in touch.

A brutal final climb saw the break caught and with under 10km remaining it was Team Ineos’ Jhonatan Narvaez who went solo in pursuit of victory.

Narvaez was eventually caught with just 500m to go, and it was Demare who had enough in his legs to overtake Gilbert and seal GC victory in style.

Van Avermaet (CCC Team) finished in third to end up second in the GC overall.

Tour de Wallonie