Arnaud Demaret hopes to return to the Tour de France in 2021, insisting that the Frenchman can combine sprint and overall in La Grande Boucle.

Groupama-FDJ has dropped Demare from its lineup for the past two Tours, concentrating on Thibaut Pinot's overall title bid. Although he missed this year's Tour, De Mare had a successful 2020 campaign with 14 wins. He also took four stage wins and a points prize at the Giro d'Italia.

Demare has won a stage in each of his last two Tour appearances in 2017 and 2018, and the 29-year-old is eager to return to the race next July.

"The fact that I want to be there has been discussed. I don't know what will happen, but I definitely want to be in the Tour next year," DeMare told Ciclismactu (open in new tab).

Demare cited the example of UAE Team Emirates and Jumbo Visma to prove that it is possible for teams to use sprinters at the Tour while focusing on the overall classification.

"If you look at Alexander Kristoff and Tadej Pogachar this year, it is possible. The same goes for Jumbo Visma's Wout Van Aert and Primosz Roglic. I think it's possible. It would require the right racing environment and success for both of them, but in any case it is not inconceivable."

The 2020 season was interrupted for four months by a coronavirus outbreak.

"It's complicated to start a program now that all the races have been cancelled. There could be periods of two or three weeks without races, instead of being very concentrated like in 2020."

DeMare got right back up to speed when the 2020 season resumed in August. In that month alone, he won the Milano-Torino and French Championships, as well as the Tour de Wallonie and Tour Poitou-Charentes. He claimed that his success was also due to the strength of his lead-out train, which he claimed was the strongest in the world.

"It's obvious. The other riders know it and they are watching us. 'It was like that in Milan-Torino, in the Giro d'Italia, and in all the other races. We were always at the front, and we knew how to adapt when we needed to, depending on the parcours."

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