Bouhanni and Navarro to lead Cofidis at the Vuelta a España
French team ambitious for final grand tour of the season
Nacer Bouhanni and Dani Navarro have been confirmed as dual leaders at the Vuelta a España for French wildcard team Cofidis. Both Bouhanni and Navarro won stages at the Vuelta last year although Bouhanni did so while riding for FDJ. Cofidis have regularly tested success at the Spanish grand tour and are looking to continue its winning ways in August and September.
Bouhanni, who crashed out of the Tour de France on stage 5, has won back-to-back stages at the Tour de l'Ain in anticipation of the Vuelta which he will start as one of the sprinters to watch with John Degenkolb one of his main rivals for the race. The 25-year-old won two stages and finished runner up on a stage before pulling the pin on stage 14 of last year's Vuelta. He will be supported by Dominique Rollin and Geoffrey Soupe for the flat stages.
Since joining the team at the end of last season, Bouhanni has won seven races in 2015 including two stages of the Critérium du Dauphiné where he also won the green jersey.
While Cofidis started the Tour with 100% backing of Bouhanni in the sprints, the team has the shared ambition of impressing on general classification with Navarro. The 32-year-old finished tenth overall at the Vuelta last season for his best grand tour result from 12 starts but was off the pace at the Tour de France last month where he finished 66th overall largely riding riding without help in the mountains.
With Cyril Lemoine, Julien Simon and Yoann Bagot Cofidis have several options for breakaway success and support for the team's general classification hopes while Stéphane Rossetto will support Navarro in the mountains.
Nicolas Edet, the 2013 king of the mountains champion at the Vuelta, has been left off the roster having ridden the Tour in July
Cofidis for the Vuelta a España: Yoann Bagot, Nacer Bouhanni, Romain Hardy, Cyril Lemoine, Daniel Navarro, Dominique Rollin, Stéphane Rossetto, Julien Simon and Geoffrey Soupe.
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