Nacer Bouhanni was a distant second behind the superior Marcel Kittel in yesterday's first Giro d'Italia sprint. However, the Frenchman was not too displeased by being thoroughly beaten as the race circumstances had forced him to launch his sprint too early.

Last year Nacer Bouhanni got very close to his first grand tour stage win in the Giro d'Italia but failed to beat Mark Cavendish before leaving the race to prepare for the Tour de France. This year he is trying to finally open his palmares and he got his race off to a solid start when he finished 2nd in the first sprint stage.

Bouhanni was far behind the superior stage winner Marcel Kittel but in fact he was not too disappointed by seeing the race's main sprinter stamp his authority on the race right from the beginning. The Frenchman had been forced to launch his sprint too early and that had played against him in the finale.

Going into the final turn, Bouhanni was in an excellent positioon just behind Mitchell Docker and Michael Matthews who were the first two rider throught the corner. The Orica-GreenEDGE pair slowed down too much though and suddenly Bouhanni had no other choice than to open his sprint from afar.

"I launched my sprint from too far out but I had no choice because I was in second position," Bouhanni told Cyclingnews. "GreenEdge slowed a bit, so I had to go with 300 metres left and I faded completely in the end. In the last 50 metres I had no more force left.

"Kittel was stronger than me and when I went from 300 metres to go, he was able to come up from behind and go past me. He was stronger today, so we'll see tomorrow.

"It was very fast in the finale and a bit disorganised too. We lost track of one another a bit but we managed to keep three guys with me all the same."