He may have targeted the Tour de France, Milan-Sanremo and Gent-Wevelgem, but ahead of his Cofidis debut at the Challenge Mallorca, Nacer Bouhanni says he wants to win as many races as possible.

"I want to win and win as much as possible, be it in WorldTour races or other smaller races I ride," he said according to Le Monde. "I've got my own lead out train and so I hope my results will reflect that. Every time I start a race, it'll be to win. My goal is to win, that's the only result that matters. Of course there some races that are especially close to my heart like Milan-San Remo and the Tour de France, where I hope to win some stages."

"I don't need people to put pressure on me. I put pressure on myself because I expect a lot from myself," Bouhanni explained. "I joined Cofidis to win, it doesn't matter when or where. I'm not interested in what happened at Cofidis in the past, I think we're going to write a new chapter in the history of the team."

The arrival of Bouhanni to the Pro Continental team seems to have lifted the spirits of the squad, who have been achieving strong results lately, with Daniel Navarro finishing ninth overall at the 2013 Tour de France and taking a stage at the 2014 Vuelta a Espana.

"The team proved that they worked hard in 2014 but we've got to turn the page. With Nacer Bouhanni, there are good reasons to believe in us again. We hope to win 20 races in 2015," the head of Cofidis Competition Thierry Vittu told L'Equipe, apparently hinting that Cofidis could return to the WorldTour in 2016.

"It's wrong to say that we're starting from zero," team manager Yvon Sanquer said. "We've got a new sporting project with Nacer and also a new philosophy. We've hired one of the best sprinters in the world and we will give him the lead out train he deserves. Nacer is a leader and leads by example. We've already improved a lot."

Cofidis has put a lot into Bouhanni, signing Steve Chainel (for the Classics), Dominique Rollin, Geoffrey Soupe and Jonas Ahlstrand to help him in his leadout, plus Adrien Petit will no longer lead in sprints and will help Bouhanni instead.