Having dominated the bunch sprints in the Giro d'Italia, Nacer Bouhanni again proved his amazing speed when he won the first road stage of the Vuelta a Espana. The Frenchman has now set his sights on another win but reveals that the points jersey oudl also become a target.
In the Giro d'Italia Nacer Bouhanni took the first three grand tour stage victories of his career. Today he added another important win to his growing tally when he finished off perfect FDJ teamwork by winning the first road stage of the Vuelta a Espana.
The victory came as a huge relief for Bouhanni who built his condition in the Eneco Tour where he won stage 4. He may now target the points jersey which he won in the Italian grand tour.
"It was my goal to win a stage as soon as possible to take pressure off my FDJ.fr team," he said. "We’ll be more relaxed from now on. It’s important. I won the only bunch sprint I took part in at the Eneco Tour. It gave me the confidence after not riding for more than a month after the French championship [2nd behind his team-mate Arnaud Démare]. I trained well before the Eneco Tour. I knew the form was coming. Shall there be other opportunities to win at the Vuelta, I’ll go for it.
"My next goal is a second stage win. I’ll focus on that. We’ll defend the green jersey but this was only stage 2. I’ll also try and do the intermediate sprints and this distinctive jersey could become a goal later on. But I won’t be obsessed by the points competition."
Yesteday Bouhanni's brother Rayane won the French junior championships to make it a great weekend for the Bouhanni family.
"Rayane’s national title is kind of my most beautiful victory of the year," he said. "Usually I struggle to fall asleep after winning and it happened to me last night. My brother is very important for me. His win yesterday has increased my desire to win as well today. I’m very happy."
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