Nacer Bouhanni may be about to begin his fourth season with Cofidis at next week’s Dubai Tour, but the new campaign will not be without changes for the Frenchman. Cedric Vasseur replaced Yvon Sanquer as team manager during the off-season, and one of his first weighty decisions has been to reduce the size of the lead-out train at Bouhanni’s disposal.
When Bouhanni joined Cofidis from FDJ at the beginning of 2015, the Pro Continental squad endeavoured to build a nucleus around his sprinting talent, and last year underlined their commitment to the project by extending his contract until the end of 2019.
Although Bouhanni has twice finished atop the Europe Tour standings in his three seasons at Cofidis to date, he has failed to land a long-awaited stage victory at the Tour de France – and missed the race altogether in 2016 after injuring himself in an altercation with a hotel guest at that year’s French Championships.
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“He’s a leader and he has been the target of attacks. However, he is also conscious of having committed some errors of behaviour,” Vasseur told L’Équipe of his team leader.
Vasseur added that it was his role to “give confidence” to Bouhanni and said that he could understand that the sprinter might have been unhappy at his appointment in place of Sanquer. “That’s normal: a person in whom he had confidence was fired and he wasn’t consulted on my arrival,” Vasseur said.
Last year, Bouhanni’s father Karim was hired by the Cofidis team as part of his entourage, but Vasseur decided not to renew the working relationship with him for 2018. Bouhanni's brother Rayane and long-term coach Jacques Decrion both remain at Cofidis.
Cutting the lead out train
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