One week after abandoning Paris-Nice with knee pains, Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) was back in action as the big favourite for yesterday's Nokere Koerse. With a dangerous break creating lots of confusion and the sprint up the Nokereberg being highly unusual, the former French champion could only manage 3rd after starting his accelerations too early.

Nacer Bouhanni enjoyed a splendid start to Paris-Nice after winning the opening stage and spending a few days in the yellow jersey but in the end he had to succumb to pain in his knee stemming from a crash on the opening day. After a few days of recovery, the Frenchman returned to competition in yesterday's Nokere Koerse where he was the natural favourite for victory.

However, his FDJ team got their race off to a bad start when a big 17-rider group escaped and the Frenchmen were one of the few big squads to be missing. This forced the team to do a huge effort hroughout the entire day, with Johan Le Bon, Jussi Veikkanen, Laurent Mangel, Arnaud Courteille, and Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier spending most of the race on the front of the peloton.

The mission nearly failed as the final escapee, Gert Steegmans, was only caught on the finhing straight and even held on for fourth. The confusing scenario that was made even more difficult by the fact that the sprint took place on the cobbled Nokereberg made Bouhanni misjudge his sprint and he could only manage third.

"I started my sprint too early. I sprinted in a stupid way," he said. "It's also a strange finish. It's okay to sprint uphill but even on cobbles? That is not easy.

"Today the team did an excellent job. We had no one in the early break and so we had to contol the situation. In the closing laps all but six riders were brought back. Gert Steegmans survived the longest but in the end he paid for his efforts. Unfortunately, I had already burnt my matches and finished 3rd. I can't hide my disappointment. More was possible in this race."

"The gap quickly got up to three minutes," manager Marc Madiot said. "We had to react very quickly. My riders started to work far from the finish, knowing that it would be tight all day.

"The gap to the escapees continued to come down but at the beginning of the last two kilometres, they still had thirty seconds, I thought it was over. But the false flat, the descent and the uphill finish on cobbles was too much for the final two escapees.

"Nacer was protected by Geoffrey Soupe and Sébastien Chavanel but it was confusing and not easy to understand what was going on. When he saw the sprinters take risks, he knew he had to go. At 500 meters he was 20th. On the line, he missed a bike length and finished third. It is a shame but the good news is that his knee didn't hurt. On Sunday Nacer will be ready for Cholet-Pays de la Loire."