Bouhanni strikes in Angers

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The day after clashing with stage one winner Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling), who was accused of some dangerous riding in the sprint, Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) took his revenge by winning stage two of Circuit de la Sarthe in Angers.

The sprint ended with the same result as the Val d’Ille Classic on Sunday, with the French national champion out-sprinting the up and coming Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar).

“I was very disappointed yesterday," Bouhanni said after his win. “It wasn’t an easy sprint today but having done this race before, I knew the little basin under the bridge before the finishing line, so I opened my sprint just before that to hit it with full speed. My teammate Benoît Vaugrenard did an enormous amount of work for me towards the end and Anthony Geslin led-out the sprint for me. I got an excellent lead-out.”

It was Bouhanni's fourth victory this year after taking stage six of the Tour of Oman, stage one of Paris-Nice and the Val d’Ille Classic. He crashed out of Paris-Nice on stage two, while wearing the leader's yellow jersey.

“My form is coming back slowly but surely after my crash," the FDJ rider said. “This year, I feel that I have improved a lot compared to last year.”

Coquard admitted that Bouhanni is currently sprinting better than he is. “I didn’t feel at ease on the cobblestones on the final circuit." he said. “But I’m not looking for excuses. Nacer is the French champion. He’s a great sprinter. I’m happy to realize that I did’t finish far away from him this morning.”

The Bouhanni-Coquard duel has been one of the highlights of the early season. French cycling now has several young and talented fast finishers after years of little success.

“I don’t look at being compared just with Coquard," Bouhanni told Cyclingnews. “He’s got four wins already [two at Etoile de Bessèges and Le Tour de Langkawi each]. He’s a super sprinter. The media try to put us against each other but sprinting isn’t only about him and me. Here at Circuit de la Sarthe, there’s a good list of sprinters.”

Bouhanni was happy to have beaten Pelucchi, who came in third and maintained the overall lead ahead of the afternoon 6.8km time trial. Bouhanni reiterated his words from the day before.

“We have spoken and clarified the situation yesterday," the Frenchman said. “We all take risks in the sprints, but it’s not correct to put people’s lives in danger.”

Pelucchi admitted he was not perfectly placed this time. “I was a bit too far back before the first roundabout leading to the sprint," he said. “I was a bit too isolated to make it back to the front. I started too late.”

His IAM Cycling team led the chase of the five riders that jumped away from the start. Nathan Haas (Garmin-Sharp), Julian Kern (AG2R-La Mondiale), Cyril Bessy (Cofidis), Daniel Quintero (Colombia) and Rony Martias (Sojasun), who was away for the second day in a row, got a maximum lead of 1:30.

Anthony Delaplace (Sojasun) made a late attack but could not stop the French sprinters from taking the glory.