Bouhanni wins Halle-Ingooigem

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Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) was victorious at Halle-Ingooigem, coming out on top in the bunch sprint ahead of Kris Boekmans (Lotto-Soudal) and Edward Theuns (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise).

At the end of the 198.8km Belgian one-day race, it was Boekmans who had a lead-out in the straight drag to the line, but Bouhanni was in his wheel and able to come round him with ease when the sprint was launched.

It provides further confirmation of the Frenchman’s form with just 10 days to go until the Tour de France, coming off the back of the two victories he picked up at the Critérium du Dauphiné this month. Bouhanni dropped down to Pro Conti level with Cofidis from WorldTour outfit FDJ for 2015 and after a decidedly sluggish start to the season, he has gone from strength to strength and now has six wins.

The main breakaway of the day was made up of five riders who carved out an advantage of over six minutes. They were Sam Lennertz (Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace), Xandro Meurisse (An Post-Chain Reaction), Paulius Siskevicius (An Post-Chain Reaction), David Boucher (FDJ), and Dieter Vanthourenhout (Sunweb-Napoleon Games Cycling Team). By the 30km to go mark, however, their lead was less than a minute, and that tumbled when there was split in the peloton with 20 remaining

Then a more established group of riders managed to create an advantage. Nikolas Maes (Etixx-QuickStep), Jesse Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL-Jumbo), Geoffrey Soupe (Cofidis), and Kenny Dehaes (Lotto-Soudal) were joined by Niki Terpstra (Etixx) and gained half a minute.

Maes attacked repeatdedly inside the final 10km and was the final rider to be caught but couldn’t prevent the inevitable and it was all together going into the straight final kiometre, which headed downhill before flattening out at 200 metres. 

There was a big crash on the right hand side of the road inside the final 50 metres but Bouhanni was already sailing through on the left.

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