With Bryan Coquard, Arnaud Demare, and Nacer Bouhanni, French cycling has some of the most exciting sprint talents in their ranks. They often battle it out in the many French one-day races but one race stands above the rest as the ultimate test for every French sprint. GP Denain-Porte du Hainaut is often regarded as the unofficial French sprint championships and Thursday it will reveal whether Bouhanni is faster than Coquard. Starting at 13.45 CEST you can follow the race on CyclingQuotes.com/live.
With its flat profile and star-studded line-up, Scheldeprijs is often regarded as the unofficial world championships for sprinters and has thrice in a row been won by Marcel Kittel. With the GP Denain, the race has a French little brother which often offers a big duel between all the best French sprinters and a number of foreign stars.
This year's edition is no exception and the French press have warmed up to the big battle. France has a lot of great sprint talents and there are different opinions about who's the best. Nacer Bouhanni, Arnaud Demare and Bryan Coquard attract most attention, and tomorrow we will know a little more about the French sprinting hierarchy when the 2014 edition of the GP Denain takes place.
FDJ have been wise enough to split their stars Demare og Bouhanni which means that the 2013 champion Demare will be absent. Bouhanni has ventured his frustration of being an apparent second in the internal hierarchy, and he will do his utmost to prove his worh in Thurday's batte. He will be challenged not only by Coquard but by a host of sprinters that include Matteo Pelucchi, Kenny Van Hummel, Manuel Belletti, Romain Feillu, Yauheni Hutarovich, Alexander Porsev, Marco Haller, Rudiger Selig, Kenny Dehaes, Filippo Fortin, Adrien Petit, Edwin Avila, Francesco Chicchi, Kristian Sbaragli, Tom Van Asbroeck, Danilo Napolitano, Steven Tronet, Justin Jules, Benjamin Giraud, Baptiste Planckaert, Timothy Dupont, Denis Flahaur, Joeri Stallaert and Antoine Demoitie.
Starting at 13.45 CEST you can follow the race here.
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