Hours after Arnaud Démare’s mid-season transfer from Groupama-FDJ to Arkéa-Samsic was announced, it was confirmed that Miles Scotson would follow him to the team in 2024.
Démare brokered his immediate departure from Groupama-FDJ following his omission from their lineup for the Tour de France. The Frenchman has signed a contract with Arkéa-Samsic that will keep him at the team until the end of 2025.
Scotson has also agreed to a two-year deal with Arkéa-Samsic, though he will stay at Groupama-FDJ rider for the rest of 2023 before linking up again with Démare next season. The Australian had raced with Groupama-FDJ since 2019, forming a key role in Démare's lead-out train, most notably on the Giro d'Italia in 2020 and 2022.
“Miles Scotson will join me for the next two years and that’s a sign of confidence from the team,” Démare told reporters in a video call on Tuesday afternoon. “For the rest of this season, I know there are some fine riders who can do the work for a sprint, I have confidence in them. It will take time to get to know one another, but that’s a nice challenge.”
Nacer Bouhanni, such a fierce internal rival to Démare during his time at FDJ, is among the Frenchman’s new teammates. Démare insisted, however, that there was no ill feeling between the two sprinters, who competed closely for national titles and for their team’s sprint berth at the Tour de France.
“With Nacer, we were in the same team, there was a lot of rivalry but that was a movitation, and if we had the same dynamic here, that would be beneficial to both of us and to the team,” Démare said.
“We’re both very respectful towards one another, despite what’s been said in the papers. There was a big rivalry between us because we were competing for the same races, but I think I have more points in common with Nacer than any other rider.”
Démare will make his debut for Arkéa-Samsic at the Tour of Leuven on August 15, and he confirmed that he would not line out at the Vuelta a España, meaning he will complete the season without a Grand Tour for the first time since 2013. His programme is instead set to include the BEMER Cyclassics, the Tour of the Benelux, the Grand Prix de Fourmies, the Tour de Vendée, the European Championships in Drenthe and Paris-Tours.
“I won’t do the Vuelta this year, and the last few weeks were difficult for me psychologically too, I couldn’t do the training I needed to do a race like the Vuelta,” said Démare. “I preferred to follow a programme that would give me the maximum number of opportunities to shine.”
Démare was reluctant to revisit his omission from Groupama-FDJ’s Tour team and the breakdown in his rapport with manager Marc Madiot, who conceded that he could understand his now-former rider’s disappointment.
“I obviously watched the Tour de France, it was magnificent, a super duel that excited us all, so I was coming back early from training to watch the stages,” Démare said. “I don’t want to comment about what happened. As for Marc Madiot, I think I’ll need a bit more time to digest things before we’ll have the chance to talk about it.”
Démare revealed that he had contemplated moving to a foreign team once it became clear he would not stay with Groupama-FDJ, but he ultimately opted for Arkéa-Samsic following talks with manager Emmanuel Hubert.
“It was important to find a team that had confidence me,” he said.
