Nacer Bouhanni sprinted to victory in stage six of the Vuelta a Espana that concluded in San Javier, Murcia, today.
The Cofidis Solutions Credits rider claimed a winning time of 3:58:35 over the 155.7km course, which started in Huércal-Overa.
The Frenchman beat LottoNL-Jumbo’s Danny van Poppel and Quick-Step Floors’ Elia Viviani into second and third respectively.
A group of cyclists take a corner during a Vuelta a Espana stage. Photo: Luis Ángel Gómez
As the riders headed into the final 20km of a stage that was expected to favour the sprinters, Bora-Hansgrohe took to the front of the peloton, which consisted of around 40 cyclists.
Among them was Peter Sagan, who was a favourite for the win today, but has been recovering from a crash he suffered near the end of the Tour de France.
Numerous teams were riding for a sprint finish with only 11km to the finish line. The pace was soon picked up by the Quick-Step team.
Groupama-FDJ’s Rudy Molard, who led the general classification, formed part of this leading group. While not ending on the podium, Molard held onto the red jersey for a second straight day.
Other overall contenders in this leading group included Astana’s Miguel Ángel López, Bahrain-Merida’s Jon Izaguirre Insausti, Bora-Hansgrohe’s Sam Bennett, LottoNL-Jumbo’s Steven Kruijswijk, Movistar’s Nairo Quintana, EF Education First–Drapac p/b Cannondale’s Rigoberto Urán and Sky’s Michał Kwiatkowski.
With less than 5km remaining, the gap to the second bunch was 1:36.
Bahrain-Merida’s Vincenzo Nibali started pushing on the front as Kwiatkowski joined him with fellow Sky rider David de la Cruz on his wheel.
With less than 1.5km to the finish, Viviani lined up for the sprint, followed by Mitchelton-Scott’s Matteo Trentin, but in the end they were outsprinted by Bouhanni.
