Nacer Bouhanni of Cofidis crashed heavily in the final stretch of the French championship in Chantonnay after a move by FDJ’s Anthony Roux who was eventually disqualified by the judges. The injuries sustained might force Bouhanni out of the Tour de France.
The 2012 French champion lowered his head when he crossed the line 3:30 after Steven Tronet of continental team Auber 93.
Later when he came out of his bus, he refused to answer the questions of the reporters and jumped in the car driven by his personal coach Jacques Décrion with his younger brother Rayane, 19, who races for AWT Greenway, and team doctor Jacky Maillot on the back seat. On his way home to the Vosges in the east of France [the race was held in Vendée in the west], he tweeted an almost naked picture of himself with bandages and wrote: “Surely out of the Tour. Rib is cracked or broken. I’ll give more news shortly.”
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Cofidis team manager Yvon Sanquer said before his protégé undergoes a RMI to determine the damage: “If it’s dislocated, a fifteen days stop is necessary and that would mean no Tour. We pay a big price. It’s not his fault. Up to 300 metres to go, it was a dream scenario for us. It’s an unpleasant race fact.”
Coincidently, the crash was caused, according to the judges, by a former teammate. Bouhanni left FDJ openly angry, partly because the team didn’t select him for the 2014 Tour de France. In the previous edition of the Grande Boucle, the first he started, he pulled out in stage 6. He joined Cofidis for a salary rumored to be 1.3 million euros. He looked ready for the Tour de France as he won two stages and the points classification of the Critérium du Dauphiné and more recently Halle-Ingooigem, which was his sixth win of the season.
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