Nacer Bouhanni staked his claim to being counted among the favourites for Saturday’s Milan-San Remo with a dominating display of sprinting prowess on his way to winning Nokere Koerse-Danilith Classic on Wednesday.
The Cofidis sprinter easily won the bunch kick at the end of the 192.2km 1.HC race in Belgium, leading through the final right-hand turn and then extending his lead over the last 100 metres to win by half a dozen bike lengths.
"I am happy to win my first race of the season,” Bouhanni said. “I had a lot of second or third places since the beginning of the year.”
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The timing couldn’t be better for the 26-year-old Frenchman ahead of Saturday’s Milan-San Remo after he had to abandon Paris-Nice earlier this month. He started his season in Spain with third at the Trofeo Palma, then scored two second-place finishes at Volta a la Valenciana.
Bouhanni hit the podium again at Volta ao Algarve, finishing third behind Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) and Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) on the opening stage, but the first win of 2017 had eluded him until Wednesday.
When two consecutive days of cold, windy weather at Paris-Nice caused him to abandon on the second stage, the rider who was sixth in his Milan-San Remo debut in 2015 and fourth last year despite suffering a mechanical in the final kilometre suddenly began to fall out of conversations about potential favourites.
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