Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) won the bunch sprint in the GP de Denain, finishing ahead of Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling) and Francesco Chicchi (Neri Sottoli).

Team Europcar led the peloton into the final kilometre, but when Jimmy Engoulvent (Europcar) pulled away from the front the peloton became disorganised. The FDJ team were quick to capitalise on that, slipping over the right hand side of the road and moving quickly towards the front of the race.

Once there Bouhanni opened up his sprint, jumped clear of the rest of the sprinters and held on for the win. Behind him Pelucchi showed impressive speed to close the gap, but Bouhanni had timed his sprint superbly which meant that Pelucchi simply ran out of road to catch him.

This was the fifth win of the season for Bouhanni and strengthens his position in a contract year, whether he is negotiating with FDJ or looking elsewhere, the more he wins the better the deal he is likely to get.

Featuring 197.3km of largely flat terrain, the GP de Denain was always expected to finish with a bunch sprint, but the hoped for clash between Bouhanni and Bryan Coquard (Europcar) never materialised.

While FDJ had spent much of the day hiding in the peloton, Europcar, along with Cofidis, had spent much of the race working to control the break. Europcar were particularly prominent in the closing kilometres as their Japanese Champion, Yukiya Arashiro did sterling work on the front of the bunch, keeping the pace high as they drove towards the finish.

When Arashiro pulled over there were still three Europcar riders at the front, with their young sprint star Coquard nestled in 3rd wheel behind the experienced Engoulvent.

However, as other teams bustled their way forwards Coquard lost his spot and from that point on things went badly for Europcar, as Coquard seemed to jump from rider to rider trying in vain to find the right wheel to follow, before fading to finish 16th. A disappointment for sure but also a valuable learning experience for Coquard, as a smaller and slighter rider than most sprinters which makes him a better climber, but he still needs to be able to fight for his place in a bunch sprint.

The race itself featured more action than expected, the early break was established as normal, but halfway through the race the winds started to pick up and the Cofidis team hit the front hard, trying to use those winds to break up the peloton.

Unfortunately for Cofidis either the winds, or they, weren't quite strong enough and all their efforts were wasted and their best they could manage in the sprint was 12th with Clement Venturini. Even so their move enlivened the race; on another day it might have resulted in a group of 20-30 riders reaching the finish together and gave their sprinter Adrien Petit a great chance to pick up his first win.

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About the author
Kev Connaghan
Sports writer covering cycling, NFL and Michigan football, as well as a general sports fan