After more than two months without a single victory, Nacer Bouhanni finally opened his account for Cofidis when he continued his love affair with the Circuit Cycliste Sarthe by winning the opening stage. After the early break had been caught inside the final kilometre, he beat Nathan Haas (Cannondale-Garmin) and Raymond Kreder (Roompot) into the minor positions in the bunch sprint to take the first leader’s jersey in the race.

Going into the 2015 season, Cofidis felt assured that they would win a lot more in 2015 than they had done in the past few years. Having signed Nacer Bouhanni who has been one of the most successful rider in the last few years, they seemed to be destined to take several prestigious victories.

The team significantly bolstered their lead-out train but in the first part of the season, nothing has worked for the French team. Despite a pretty heavy racing schedule, Bouhanni came up short in several bunch sprint in the first two months of his time at Cofidis.

The situation looked even more dark last Friday when he missed out on what seemed to be a guaranteed win in the Route Adelie de Vitré where Romain Feillu (Bretagne) relegated him into second. Today, however, he finally managed to break the drought when he won the first stage of the Circuit Cycliste Sarthe.

Bouhanni has won several stages in the four-day French race in the past and he lined up for the flat opening stage as the big favourite. However, he nearly missed out on the chance to sprint for the win as a three-rider break almost threw a spanner in the works.

The peloton allowed Jacques van Rensburg (MTN-Qhubeka), Romain Lemarchand (Cult) and Carlos Ramirez (Colombia) to get an advantage of more than 11 minutes and with small 6-rider teams in the race, it turned out to be hard for the sprint teams to catch them. Cannondale-Garmin did the majority of the work but with 20km to go, the escapees were still 2.30 ahead.

This forced Cofidis to kick into action and the French team committed fully to their sprinter as they headed around the 6 laps of the 7.2km finishing circuit. With some help from Movistar, they had brought the gap down to 18 seconds with 3km to go but there was no guarantee that they would bring the break back in time.

Ramirez was dropped from the break and finally van Rensburg and Lemarchand also had to surrender with less than 1km to go. Hence, it came down to the expected bunch sprint where Bouhanni relegated Nathan Haas and Raymond Kreder to the minor positions.

With the win, Bouhanni also takes the first leader’s jersey and he goes into a busy second day with a 1-second advantage over Lemarchand. He will get another chance in tomorrow’s morning stage which should be another one for the sprinters before the GC battle kicks off in the 6.8km afternoon time trial.

A flat opener

The 2015 Circuit Cycliste Sarthe kicked off with a 188.2km stage from Sable-sur-Sarthe to Varades. The course was mostly flat and only included three smaller climbs at the midpoint before the riders ended the stage by doing 6 laps of a flat 7.2km finishing circuit in Varades.

The riders took the start under a beautiful sunny sky and lots of people had turned up to cheer the riders on. The peloton got the race off to a hectic start with a few attacks before the early break was formed.

The break is formed

After just 1km of racing, 8 riders managed to get clear but that group was too big and so they were brought back. At the 4km mark, Jacques Janse van Rensburg (MTN-Qhubeka) launched the next attack and he laid the foundations for the move that stuck.

Carlos Botero Ramirez (Colombia) and Romain Lemarchand (Cult) bridged the gap to form a 3-rider break and the size of that group was much more manageable for the peloton which slowed completely down. At the 21km mark, the gap was 2.20 and 4km later, the escapees had extended their advantage to 6.05.

Bretagne make some action

Cofidis and FDJ hit the front but they were still not doing any real chase work. This opened the door for the Bretagne duo of Armindo Fonseca and Anthony Delaplace to attack and they managed to build an advantage of one minute over the peloton.

The bunch allowed the gap to reach 7 minutes before they upped the pace and brought the two chasers back. As a consequence, the gap came down to 6.25 before the peloton again slowed down, with Cofidis, Colombia and Tinkodd-Saxo leading the way. The gap now grew quickly and after 69km of racing, it reached a massive 11.30.

The chase gets organized

This was the signal for the peloton to start their chase. When Lemarchand beat van Rensburg and Ramirez in the first intermediate sprint, the gap was only 9.45.

8-9 riders tried to attack from the peloton but the bunch quickly responded and neutralized the move. For a while, they kept the gap at around 9 minutes.

Cannondale-Garmin take control

When the riders reached the hilly midpoint, the peloton accelerated and while van Rensburg beat Lemarchand and Ramirez in the first KO M sprint, they brought the gap down to 7.35. As van Rensburg led Ramirez and Lemarchand over the top of the second climb, the gap was 7 minutes and when they passed the final climb in the same order, it was only 6.05.

After 128km of racing, the peloton had reduced the gap to 4.50 as Cofidis and Cannondale-Garmin had now really committed themselves to the chase. As they hit the finishing circuit with a deficit of 4.35, 5 Cannondale riders and 1 Cofidis rider were lined out on the front.

More teams start to chase

Lemarchand beat van Rensburg and Ramirez in the second intermediate sprint at a point when the gap was only 4 minutes. FDJ had now joined forces with Cannondale-Garmin on the front of the peloton and after the second lap of the finishing circuit, they had reduced the deficit to 3.30.

As the approached the final intermediate sprint, Roompot joined forces with Cannondale on the front and when Lemarchand beat van Rensburg and Ramirez in the battle for the points, they had reduced the deficit to 2.50.

Cofidis take over

Entering the final 20km, the gap was still 2.35 and the peloton was now in panic mode. Movistar started to work with Cannondale and with two laps to go, they had reduced the deficit to 2 minutes.

Cofidis now hit the front again and as they got some assistance from Movistar, it made the difference. With 8km to go, the gap was 1.20 and at the penultimate passage of the line, it was 56 seconds.

With 4km to go, the gap was 35 seconds but 1km later the escapees had lost another 10 seconds. At this point, Ramirez was distanced from the break which was 18 seconds ahead with 2km to go. However, they were swallowed up inside the final kilometre and it was Bouhanni who sprinted to the win.