Nacer Bouhanni wins Nokere Koerse

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Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) claimed his first win of 2017 Wednesday at Nokere Koerse-Danilith Classic, easily out-sprinting the bunch on the wide finishing straight in Nokere.

Coming off his team's lead out in perfect position, the French fast man went through the final left-hand turn about 200 metres from the finish in first position and was never challenged as he crossed the line half a dozen bike lengths ahead of Adam Blythe (Aqua Blue Sport) and Joeri Stallaert (Cibel-Cebon).

Bouhanni took his first victory of the season following several top 10s, including two second-place finishes at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana.

"I figured I'd start my sprint as soon as I was on the final pavement," he said. "I did not want to get trapped. I went with 300 meters, I did not ask any questions. When I turned in the last few meters, I saw that I had taken a good lead."

Several crashes on the last lap of the race complicated the run to the line, but Blythe said it was nothing out of the ordinary for the sprinters.

"It was hectic sprint," Blythe said. “It was dangerous, but it's like every sprint. Every sprint is dangerous. I just lost a few places with 400 metres to go, and I started sprinting a little bit slow, so I had to make up some places. It's still a good sprint. I finished strong."

Blythe said he punctured on the last lap but was able to regain the bunch with enough time to contest the finish.

"I punctured with I think 8km to go maybe, but that's just racing," he said. "It would have still been the same result, maybe a little better if I had better positioning, but it didn't really take anything away from my legs."

How it unfolded

A breakaway of seven riders that included Ole Forfang (Team Joker Icopal), Ludwig de Winter (WB Veranclassic Aqua Protect), Kenneth VanRooy (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Hamish Schreurs (Cycling Academy), Floris De Tier (LottoNL-Jumbo), Gaetan Bille (Vérandas Willems-Crelan) and Elmar Reinders (Roompot - Nederlandse Loterij) jumped away early to provide the day's carrot for the chasing peloton.

Cooperation in the group drove the gap above two minutes, but the peloton had its mind set on a sprint, and the leaders were never given much leeway.

The peloton made the catch with 23km to go, and counter attacks formed a new group off the front that included De Tier, Sean de Bie (Lotto Soudal) and Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin).

The new leaders were soon joined by another half dozen riders, and attacks quickly started to shred the front of the race. It was all back together as the peloton took the bell for the final 15.6km lap.

Team Joker Icopal took control of the front in hopes of setting up the sprint for U23 world champion Kristoffer Halvorsen, but a crash in the middle of the field with about 10km to go momentarily interrupted the procession. A second crash on the narrow Belgian roads with 6km to go caused more disruption.

BMC's Floris Gerts took advantage of the confusion to launch a solo attack, gaining a slight advantage over the peloton as a rider from Cibel-Cebon bridged to the BMC rider briefly but couldn't maintain contact.

BMC threw another late bomb into the mix, with Silvan Dillier jumping away next. Dillier's move was also short-lived as the peloton drilled the pace anticipating a large bunch sprint.

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