Bouhanni takes Besseges opener
Nacer Bouhanni won the opening stage of the Etoile de Besseges in a sprint finish.
The French rider from FDJ-Big Mat collected the biggest victory of his career by edging out the Dutch duo of Jean-Pierre Drucker (Accent.jobs – Willems Veranda’s) and Bobbie Traksel (Landbouwkrediet - Euphony) at the end of the 148km ride from Beaucaire to Bellegarde.
The 21-year-old's only previous professional victory had come in last year's La Tropicale Amissa Bongo and he claimed a notable scalp in Germany's Marcel Kittel, a winner of 18 races last year including a stage of the Vuelta, who was fourth.
Belgians Koen Barbe (Landbouwkrediet) and Steven Van Vooren (Topsport Vlaanderen) formed an escape and built a maximum lead of 5:15 but with 5km to go, the group were back together and a sprint finish followed.
Etoile de Besseges is the first stage race of the season on European soil. The five-day 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour concludes on Sunday.
Comment 1 - 1 of 1
Well done Nacer.
Now who is trembling with excitement at the thought of the tour of Qatar being just round the corner? I for one can't wait to watch the bunch riding along a flat, straight, empty, dusty highway for 5 days. A commentators nightmare " ooh look, a rock that is slightly bigger than the won we passed 100Km ago". 30 minutes of highlights is enough thank you.
Why can't get have some Tour of the Med coverage? Tour of Oman is also fine as its lumpy
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