Many believed that FDJ sprinter Nacer Bouhanni, points classification winner at the Giro d’Italia, would be left out of his team’s Vuelta a Espana line up as he had moved to Cofidis. However, his team kept their promise to send him to the Spanish race as consolation for not picking him for the Tour de France.

"No, it's not been difficult at all, they've been very straight and correct with me about that," Bouhanni told Cyclingnews in Jerez de la Frontera. "My race programme hasn't changed because of the transfer, it's the same as it was always going to be if I didn't go to the Tour. I've gone to the Eneco Tour and the Vuelta as planned."

He confirmed the Spanish Grand Tour would be his last race in an FDJ jersey before heading to another French outfit, the pro continental Cofidis team. He sees the possibility of there being 5 or 6 sprints in the hilly race and hopes to leave FDJ with a bang.

"Winning one stage would be a good start, but obviously, if you win one, you want two, and if you get two, you want a third and so on," Bouhanni said. "But if I could win at least one stage, I'd be happy."

"There are some other good sprinters at the Vuelta – there's Sagan, Degenkolb, Michael Matthews, [Andrea] Guardini, Tom Boonen," he said. "There are quite a few other teams who will want to ride for bunch sprints on those stages too. For us, certainly, the objective will be control the race on the flat days but I think there'll be other teams who'll want to do the same thing."

Bouhanni endured great disappointment when FDJ opted to take fellow sprinter Arnaud Demare to the Tour over him, and the two men don’t get along particularly well. This anger and disappointment fuelled his desire to leave the team but now he has had time to think, he has come to respect the team’s decision.

"It was hard but it was the team's decision and I respected it," Bouhanni said precisely. "I'll be at the Tour de France next year, so we'll see then."

Despite Cofidis not being in the WorldTour, Bouhanni is equipped for potential Tour success. Adrien Petit is already at Cofidis and is a good leadout man. Bouhanni was joined at Cofidis by FDJ teammate Geoffrey Soupe, AG2R’s Steve Chainel, Giant’s Jonas Ahstrand and ex-teammate Dominique Rollin, who didn’t ride for a team in 2014.

"I'll have four riders in the train for me, and we'll get to work right from the first races of the season to get it right. In any case, they're riders that I know well, and I already have a good understanding with them," said Bouhanni.

Bouhanni isn’t just targeting the Tour though, he also sees an opportunity to win Classics that he didn’t get to ride because of Demare.

With the Pompeiana, Milan-San Remo's going to be more difficult for sprinters now, so I'd place Gent-Wevelgem ahead of it as an objective for the classics," he said.

But for now his focus is firmly on the 2014 Vuelta.

"I'm concentrated 100 percent on the sprints here and from Sunday on, I'm looking to win a stage," he said.