Frustrated by his crash last month in the Tour de France, France’s Nacer Bouhanni is back on the Vuelta eager for revenge and in the best of shapes to do so. Twice a stage winner last year, the Cofidis ace sprinter hopes to at least repeat the feat once this year before setting his goals higher.

“Our goal is first to win a stage and the sooner it comes the better we’ll be able to tackle a race which is always important for Cofidis,” said team manager Yvon Sanquer. 

Forced out of the Tour after a bad crash on the road to Amiens, Bouhanni recovered extremely well to win the Circuit of Getxo and two stages in the Tour de l’Ain since.

“Nacer came back faster than we expected and he goes into this Vuleta with optimal form and motivation with the aim of repeating his performances of last year. A first win would set us on track and afterwards we could look for other objectives like the points jersey for instance,” Sanquer said.

To set him up in the six stages he has marked down, the former French champion can count on a solid train made of Julien Simon, Cyril Lemoine, Dominique Rollin and Geoffrey Soupe as the last lead-out man, knowing that Simon could even play his own cards in case of a bumpier finale.

Team Cofidis have another trump up their sleeve in Daniel Navarro, who also won a stage last year before finishing 10th overall.

“Dani had a very difficult start to the season with two big crashes including one at the Tour. He starts this Vuelta hoping to do well on a course that suits him and why not repeat his stage victory a year ago,” said Sanquer.

“For the GC, even if some of them are tired, there are a number of very serious contenders.”

By Navarro’s side when the road goes up will be France’s Yoann Bagot as well as grand tour rookie Stephane Rossetto, at his best on Route du Sud and who discovers the realities of a three-week race.

“To summarise, our first goal will be for Nacer to win a stage which would spur our ambitions,” Sanquer said.

Cofidis line-up:

Nacer Bouhanni, Daniel Navarro, Yoann Bagot, Romain Hardy, Cyril Lemoine, Dominique Rollin, Stéphane Rossetto, Julien Simon and Geoffrey Soupe.