Barely 48 hours after he was hammering the handlebars in understandable frustration at Milan-San Remo, Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) has bounced back to claim the opening stage of the Volta a Catalunya in a convincing bunch sprint.
Bouhanni was apparently initially so outraged by his near-miss in San Remo that he decided not to take part in the Volta a Catalunya and gave instructions that his bikes be sent home. However, he soon relented - and on Monday, the outcome to the race proved very different.
“I saw myself losing Milan-San Remo at 200 metres from the line, my dream was broken. It was a nightmare. I’ve won today but I’ve still got that bad feeling about what happened in San Remo,” Bouhanni said afterwards.
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Bouhanni certainly proved he was in stunning form on Catalunya's slightly uphill finishing straight in Calella, easily outpowering Ben Swift (Team Sky), once again second after his runner’s up spot in Italy two days before.
Orica-GreenEdge had surged strongly in the final 500 metres, and the Australian squad’s Daryl Impey went on to place third. But even as Swift was powering past the former Tour de France leader, Bouhanni had shot past the Briton and was more than a bike length clear by the finish. Apart from the stage win, thanks to his third win of the 2016 season, the Frenchman has the overall leader’s jersey of the Volta a Catalunya to boot.
For Bouhanni, though, a rapid return to winning form will go some way to putting the massive disappointment of Milan-San Remo behind him, where arguably only the mechanical incident in the last 200 metres of the Italian Classic - a dropped chain - stood between the Frenchman and a first Monument victory.
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