Three days after taking his first win for Cofidis, Nacer Bouhanni doubled his tally when he won today’s final stage of the Circuit Cycliste Sarthe. The Frenchman emerged as the fastest in a bunch sprint after the strong duo of Ramunas Navardauskas (Cannondale-Garmin) and Tiago Machado (Katusha) had been brought back with less than 2km to go and the Lithuanian picked up enough bonus seconds to win the race by a single second.

The first part of the 2015 season was a hugely frustrating experience for Nacer Bouhanni. The Frenchman had been signed by Cofidis to bring the French team back on track after a couple of less successful seasons but nothing seemed to work for the fast Frenchman in the first part of the year.

Despite a pretty heavy racing schedule, Bouhanni always came up short in the many bunch sprints he contested and when he lined up for this week’s Circuit Cycliste Sarthe, he still hadn’t opened his account. However, the French race has often been a happy hunting ground for Bouhanni who finally took his first win three days ago in the opening stage.

Wednesday’s morning stage was another frustrating experience for Bouhanni as he missed the chance to sprint for the win when a 3-rider breakaway stayed away. However, he proved his status as the fastest rider in the peloton as he easily won the sprint for fourth.

This made him the big favourite for today’s final stage which was expected to suit the sprinters. However, his Cofidis team had to work hard in the finale as a difficult finishing circuit with a small climb was the perfect scene for an attack from Ramunas Navardauskas and Tiago Machado.

The pair managed to build an advantage of 18 seconds at the start of the final 8.5km lap and Cofidis was forced on the defensive. With less than 2km to go, however, their hard work paid off and it all came back together for a bunch sprint. Here Bouhanni confirmed his superiority by beating Alexei Tsatevich (Katusha) and Samuel Dumoulin (Ag2r) into the minor podium spots.

"It was hard because of the heat and the fast pace," he told Cyclingpro.net. "With two wins this Circuit de la Sarthe went well for me. I had not won until early this week but I knew that the form was there. I just missed the win."