Gulpama-FDJ's Arnaud Demaret finished third in the second stage of the UAE Tour in Hatta Dam on Monday. Despite losing out to race leader Caleb Yuan (Lotto Soudal) and Deceuninck-Quick Step's Sam Bennett, the 28-year-old Frenchman was buoyed by his finish on only the second day of racing in a season where he is more focused on group sprints than winning the classics He was.

The 2016 Milan-San Remo winner, who also finished third in 2018, says he plans to compete in many one-day races in 2020, but will focus on stage races that are likely to end in bunch sprints for the best chance of victory.

This change in focus comes on the back of five wins, including a stage win at the Giro d'Italia in Modena, beating Elia Viviani, Rüdiger Selig, and Ewan on the 10th stage, despite a disappointing 2019 season for him.

However, in comments posted on the Groupama-FDJ website last week, Demare said he will miss the upcoming "opening weekend" of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, and in Kuurne, 2018 He has a career-best finish of second in the tournament. Instead, after the UAE Tour, where he still has three chances to win, he will race Paris-Nice in early March, hoping to add to the three stage wins in French stage races he achieved in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

"My goal this season is to re-set my goals and increase my chances of winning; there is certainly a lot of competition in the UAE Tour, but there are also some good sprints. There are four stages for sprinters and another for punchers.

"I'm going to skip the opening weekend in Belgium, Nieuwsblad and Coulees, because I want to increase my chances of winning. These are races I really like, but lately they don't give me the chance of success that I would like.

"I don't begrudge races that aren't on the calendar at all," De Mare continued. When I win, I win in sprints. So I have to compete in more sprints."

"For example, when I competed in the Giro last year, I had only competed in five or six sprints before. This year, it means I have the potential to be a winner in every race I enter.

"I really like the E3 Binkbank Classic, Tour de Flanders, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and the Coulee Brussel-Koenet. My first priority is to win," he said, suggesting that he might not run Flanders.

"I have to target the classics that are more likely to end in a sprint, namely Ghent-Wevelgem, Milan-San Remo, or Paris-Roubaix.

In Monday's UAE Tour uphill finish at the Hatta Dam, De Mare was far behind Ewan and Bennett, but revealed that he had suffered a mechanical failure just before the climb.

"With 1,200 meters to go I hit a speed bump and my chain jumped, I had to stop pedaling for 10 to 15 seconds," he said. Then Bruno [Armirail] came up to me and gave me a little push. The chain went back on, but I lost about 20-25 places.

." At the bottom of the last hill I got back up to 15th." He explained." I knew I had to be in the top five or three to win, but my legs were good in the sprint and I was happy."

DeMare has another chance to win Wednesday's fourth stage, Xavier Park to Dubai City Walk.