The scale of Arnaud Demare's second group sprint win at the Giro d'Italia on Thursday was best illustrated by a question at a press conference about whether the French fastman had seen the winning photo finish. DeMare was the only player in that photo.

Gruppama-FDJ's Demare replied that he had not seen the photo in which, as the Giro d'Italia interpreter poetically put it, "all you see is the rider and his shadow," but Demare admitted that winning by several bike lengths was "particularly special given the depth of sprinters in the Giro.

He admitted that winning by several bike lengths was "particularly special considering the depth of sprinters in the Giro.

Thursday's crushing victory was all the more surprising given that De Mare had won Tuesday's fourth stage in Sicily by just a few millimeters, and that he admitted that his first Giro stage win 48 hours earlier had been due to a combination of different kinds of luck.

But there were no such flukey moments in Matera on Thursday, and strategy and strength played equally important roles in De Mare's 11th win of the 2020 season, rather than a combination of luck.

Groupama-FDJ almost disappeared from the lead pack on the undulating and sometimes very technical road to the finish. DeMare said that at this point he instructed his teammates to stay "hidden" so as not to expend energy in the strong headwind.

The Matera-like segmented finish (undulating approach, steep climb with 3km to go, winding downhill, and a final finish kick) was almost certain to make the path to victory unusually complicated. And DeMare confirmed that, despite the winning percentage, it was not a simple matter of beating his opponent so convincingly.

"In the run-in, I was behind and on wheels, just like my teammates.

"But I was really struggling on that short steep hill, and I told myself that the last two kilometers were flat and easy, and I made it through. After the climb, my teammate Simon Guglielmi wanted me to go ahead, but I told him I had to recover first. I did that and was able to ride Astana's pace and didn't even brake."

"Finally, with 200 meters to go, I decided to go for it. Once I got going, I knew no one was going to pass me."

DeMare recognized that Thursday was a very different kind of sprint from Tuesday's sprint in Sicily, which "was really close to the limit. This kind of finish, between uphill and flat, suits me very well when I'm in good shape."

He added, "I'm not a big fan of the uphill sprints, but I'm not a big fan of the downhill sprints, either.

Still, De Mare's confidence in his options in Matera had changed several times since he first faced the route book before the Giro and considered which days had winning options.

"Before the Giro, I was sorting the stages into sprint and non-sprint possibilities," he said, "and until yesterday [Wednesday] morning I thought it was the former. [but] after a really hard day in the mountains yesterday and our effort, I said at the team briefing this morning that I thought it would be too hard to win. But when we actually got into the stage and started riding and realized there was such a strong headwind, I knew the breakaway would come back and I had a plan for a sprint."

Repeatedly thanking the Gruppama-FDJ team, DeMare said that, as is often the case with sprinters, the morale boost from one victory gave him confidence and a boost for his next win.

"I always said that if you win the first stage, you win more. And on Friday, Brindisi, a stage in the 2020 Giro that looks like it was designed specifically for sprinters, there could be a third stage.