Bouhanni victorious at Tour de Vendée

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It was a thrilling finale at the Tour de Vendée with Europcar in contention for both the home soil victory plus overall French Cup classification for 21-year-old sprinter Bryan Coquard who was leading after 15 legs. No Frenchman had won the Tour de Vendée since Franck Bouyer in 2002 but Nacer Bouhanni of FDJ.fr emerged as a winner of a bunch sprint for the ninth time this year, followed by Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R-La Mondiale) who claimed the overall French Cup trophy for the second year in a row.

"I didn't care about the French Cup, we were here for winning the race," Bouhanni told Cyclingnews. "My teammate Laurent Pichon opened the sprint for me with 300 metres to go and he gave way to me at 150. The team has done a superb job. I only had to finish it off.

"We were racing for a bunch sprint finish. It's a nice victory. There aren't small races in professional cycling. I enjoy winning towards the end of the season because I've had up and downs this year with crashing at Paris-Nice and getting sick at the Tour de France, but it's not over yet. This is my ninth victory. I'd like to make it 10 at the Tour of Beijing."

FDJ.fr had already secured the overall team victory for the French Cup but runner-up on the individual classification Anthony Geslin had a chance to beat Coquard for the overall title. "I wasn't dreaming too much," Geslin said. "With sprinters like Nacer and Arnaud [Démare] for the last races of the season, we had other priorities than the French Cup. Winning races is still better."

That was also Europcar's point of view. "We said before the race that we'd be here for winning the Tour de Vendée," Coquard said. "But we panicked in the sprint. Kevin [Reza] led me out at 400 metres to go and I was at the front 250 metres before the line. The finish being uphill, it was too hard.

"I had good legs all day and we didn't have to ride behind the breakaway [formed by RusVelo's Pavel Kochetkov, Bretagne-Séché's Pierre-Luc Perrichon and Androni's Francesco Reda who were caught with 12km to go]. Unfortunately, we've also lost the French Cup but we'll learn from our mistakes. Sprinting is something new at Europcar. It's only the first year."

"It's pretty incredible that I end up winning the French Cup again," said Dumoulin who finished second on the day while Coquard only crossed the line in sixth place. "I wasn't extremely focused on that goal but I scored points here and there. Probably at the GP of Isbergues, when I put my wheel ahead of Coquard's, I took the two points that made the difference today.

"I wasn't sure of my form, so I observed the war of nerves between FDJ and Europcar and we took care of the chase. Nacer was above everyone in the sprint. I couldn't do better. I'm proud of what we've achieved. This trophy has great value in French cycling."