Nacer Bouhanni has suffered a new setback, sustaining a head injury at Challenge Mallorca after missing most of last season due to a neck fracture.
Having not raced since the Tour of Turkey last April, the French sprinter made his comeback and 2023 season debut in Mallorca, placing 93rd on the hilly Trofeo Alcudia, described as an "encouraging" performance by his team.
However, just three days later, he was back on the deck and suffering a third head impact in less than 12 months, crashing in the finale of the Trofeo Palma on Sunday.
"Nacer Bouhanni suffered a head injury and has pain in the ribs which will require him to undergo scans upon his return to France," read an initial statement from his Arkéa-Samsic team.
On Monday afternoon, the team reported back with "encouraging" results. There were no broken bones but there was bruising to the right side of his ribcage, as well as "headaches".
Bouhanni suffered a concussion in a training crash last January and then had his horror crash on stage 2 of the Tour of Turkey, which was caused by a spectator walking into the road. He fractured his first cervical vertebra, which required a long period of rest and subsequently prevented him from training at full capacity for a long time.
Having written off the rest of the 2022 campaign, Bouhanni fought back towards what he hoped would be full strength for 2023, but could now face another spell on the sidelines, not to mention another psychological blow.
At the start of the season, his Arkéa-Samsic team were optimistic he could return to winning ways.
"We know that Nacer often wins several races during a season. We have therefore drawn up a program for him at the start of the year which can give him the possibility of achieving this quickly. The objective during these first competitions is to restore his confidence so that he can perform again quickly," said team sports manager Théo Ouvrard.
"He will go to Tirreno-Adriatico with probably less pressure, because his performances are above all in one-day races, with real chances of winning, without obviously neglecting stage races. Following his year 2022, priority will be given for his resumption of one-day events."
It remains to be seen how Bouhanni's race programme is affected by the latest setback.
