Nacer Bouhanni finished sixth in his debut at Milan-San Remo, but the French sprinter was left frustrated in the sprint as it has happened many times in 2015.The French sprinter regretted his bad position on Via Roma and throughout the race and missed support of a teammates in the decisive part of La Classicissima.
The French sprinter showed his anger just after the race. "Once again, I was not in good a good position, I was 10th with 200 meters to go. At this level, you will pay for that. What really frustrates me is that we were five riders very close to second place and I finished sixth. I'm terribly disappointed, I think I'll have trouble digesting this," he told L'Equipe.
Bouhanni was capable of more, but at the end he could do nothing. "I saw myself as the winner, I was very confident. For this reason, it is so difficult to accept. It is an immense frustration. Again, it is my bad positioning which hurts me, but there is no secret; when you are alone to prepare the sprint, you can not expect miracles. I missed someone to lead me out," he said.
Always ambitious, he refused to accept sixth place despite it being his debut in Milan-San Remo."Obviously, considering it was my first participation, sixth is not bad. But I came here to win. I didn't want anything else than first place. This is a situation that does not please me, and it's very, very hard to accept," he said.
"I was always behind. I started the Poggio far from the front in 25th place or so, I gradually improved to reach the summit 1in 5th. Then I thought I had done the hardest part, but I found myself behind Philippe Gilbert when he crashed on the descent. I had to close the gap," he lamented in the French sports daily.
So far, Bouhanni has no victory after 23 days of competition: second, fourth, sixth and eighth in Paris-Nice, 18th in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, fourth and sixth in Oman, third in Qatar and fourth in Mallorca.
Dwars door Vlaanderen (March 25), Ghent-Wevelgem (March 29), Route Adélie (April 3), Paris Camembert (April 5), Circuit de la Sarthe (Apri 7-10l), Criterium Dauphine (June 7-14) and the French Championships (June 28) are his races before the Tour de France.
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