Former rider Nacer Bouhanni has lifted the lid on the trauma and fear of crashing that contributed to his retirement from the sport.
The retired sprinter is one of several current and former riders who spoke to L'Equipe for the publisher's new online documentary 'Crash, peloton sous tension', which explores the mental and physical effects of crashes in cycling.
34-year-old Bouhanni retired from racing at the end of 2023 after 13 years racing for FDJ, Cofidis, and Arkéa. He racked up 70 wins as a professional, including six stages across the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, plus the 2012 French national road title.
He joined Romain Bardet, Marion Rousse, Anthony Turgis, and Marc Madiot in speaking for the documentary and reflected on his feelings towards crashing in the final years of his career.
"At the end of my career, I was thinking too much, but ultimately, during the sprint, the time to think is already too late," Bouhanni told L'Equipe.
"I said to myself, 'If I go there, there's a risk of falling, it's dangerous. If it falls, it's better to fall there.' When you ask yourself these questions, there's no point in going sprinting anymore. The falls leave lifelong scars on my head."
Bouhanni, whose last race victory came at La Roue Tourangelle in March 2023, called cycling "the most dangerous sport in the world". He also recalled one of his worst crashes, which came near the end of his career, at the 2022 Tour of Turkey.
The crash was caused when a man walking on the road didn't notice the peloton racing behind him. Despite the efforts of a spectator at the side of the road to alert the man, several riders, including Bouhanni, were unable to avoid a collision.
Bouhanni didn't return to racing until January 2023 after suffering a fracture of his first cervical vertebra. He retired at the end of the season after saying, "I became a shadow of myself" following the crash.
"I must have been 10th or 15th in the peloton. We were all wheel to wheel, and, at the last moment, there was like a human barrier. Two people were on the road," Bouhanni recalled.
"I fell and I saw straight away that it was serious. I couldn't let my head go without holding it. Help arrived. I was at risk of paralysis. I collapsed. I called my family, and, for me, cycling was over."
