Career ends in 2023: Nacer Bouhanni - the best "boxer" in cycling history
Sebastian Lindner
· 06.11.2023
He doesn't like it at all. This reputation that has been attached to him for most of his career. The bad boy, the entfant terrible of cycling. He is actually rather shy, Nacer Bouhanni once told the British cycling magazine Rouleur. But then there are always these pictures. Bouhanni in a full sprint arm in arm with Michael Matthews at Paris-Nice 2016. Bouhanni punching his neighbour Jack Bauer in the middle of the peloton at the Tour de France 2017. Or Bouhanni pulling across the road at the 2021 GP Cholet and pushing his British rival Jake Stewart from his former team Groupama-FDJ into the barriers. He doesn't crash, but breaks his hand in the process.
Nacer Bouhanni's last inglorious action was also the one that was penalised most severely. The UCI banned him from all its races for two months. As always when he feels misunderstood or mistreated, the Frenchman returns in time for the Tour with anger in his stomach. Although he misses out on the hoped-for stage win, he rides the best Tour of France of his career.
Bouhanni announces the end: "Only a shadow of myself"
He doesn't have much more time to make a positive or negative impression. In April 2022, he crashed at the Tour of Turkey after a woman carelessly ran onto the road with her back to the peloton. In a mass crash reminiscent of the scene from the 2021 Tour, when a woman with a cardboard sign brought down numerous driversBouhanni breaks a vertebra in his neck. The season is over. And basically his career too.
He wants to attack again in 2023. But he doesn't succeed. On 2 October, he announced his retirement on Instagram at the age of 33. "After my serious accident last year, I was just a shadow of my former self. I fought with all my heart and soul to get back to my level, but to no avail. Life decided otherwise," writes Bouhanni.
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70 victories as a professional in 13 years for FDJ, Cofidis and Arkea-Samsic. Including eleven in four consecutive seasons from 2013 to 2016. In this phase, Bouhanni is one of the most successful sprinters in the peloton despite the huge competition from André Greipel, Marcel Kittel, Peter Sagan, Mark Cavendish, Arnaud Demare, Caleb Ewan and Alexander Kristoff.
Bouhanni more successful than ever in 2014
If there is one blemish on Bouhanni's track record, it is his lack of victory in the Tour. Although he has been under contract to French teams throughout his career, he has only competed in the world's most important cycling race four times. Sometimes he was not nominated after disputes with the management, sometimes he broke his hand before the race when he got into a fight with drunken hotel guests. In total, he only managed ten Grand Tours in his career, only finishing twice. Once, at the Giro 2014, he also rewarded himself with the - at the time - red jersey of the points leader.
However, the three stages he won were not to be his only victories in three-week tours that year, as he went on to win two more at the Vuelta later in the year. Four years later, Bouhanni won another Grand Tour stage, again at the Vuelta.
This makes 2014 the Frenchman's most successful year. It is his fourth as a professional. In 2010, he joined FDJ as a stagiare in the summer and impressed on the third day of the race with his first victory in a small .2 tour. Team boss Marc Madiot offers him a contract and is not disappointed.
Bouhanni and the managers
At least for the time being. Although Bouhanni delivers in 2014, his boss won't let him take part in the Tour. In the spring, he deprives him of Milan-San Remo, his favourite classic - and the only monument he has ever ridden. And with 6th, 4th and 8th place, he was quite successful. It comes to a break. Bouhanni complains publicly in L'Equipe - and rides for Cofidis next season.
Things initially went well there too. But in 2018, ex-professional Cedric Vasseur became the team's new manager and, in one of his first official acts, Bouhanni reduced the number of helpers for the lead-out. Not that the sprinter, who is only 1.75 metres tall and has a rather slight build, is dependent on it. In the style of Robbie McEwen, Bouhanni was able to hold his own in the peloton. On the contrary, he sees it as an affront. The tablecloth has been cut, as he already had a loud and, according to some sources, violent argument with sports director Roberto Damiano after Eschborn-Frankfurt. In 2020, he changed teams for the last time and joined Arkea-Samsic.
"Boxer" Bouhanni confronted with racism
What Nacer Bouhanni also shares with McEwen is his reputation as a roughneck. They call him the "boxer" in the peloton. And undoubtedly not all competitors are referring to the fact that Bouhanni actually keeps fit in the ring on the side. At the age of six, he not only started cycling, but also boxing. If success on the bike hadn't materialised so quickly, Bouhanni might now have a few more professional fights under his belt. He actually considered a career after cycling in the meantime, but this is also unlikely to be possible with the cervical vertebra injury.
But the serious injury is not the only thing that has been troubling the man from Epinal on the edge of the Vosges in his final years as a professional. After the foul against Stewart in 2021, Bouhanni was openly confronted with racism. The Frenchman with Algerian roots explained in L'Equipe that he had been the target of hostility on social media for some time. However, the situation with Stewart was the straw that broke the camel's back and he called the police.
His reputation as the lout of the field may have helped Clichees. But Bouhanni will not let this deter him from his path. He is not who he is made out to be. But, he told the Rouleur, he won't change either. Especially not after his career.
Nacer Bouhanni's greatest successes
- A total of 70 victories as a professional, 18 of them at WorldTour level
- Best in points jersey + 3 stage wins at the Giro d'Italia 2014
- 3 stage wins at the Vuelta a Espana (2014, 2018)
- Winner UCI Europe Tour 2015
- 3 Criterium du Dauphine stage wins (2015, 2016)
- 3 Paris-Nice stage wins (2013, 2014, 2016)
- 3 stage wins in the Tour of Catalonia (2016, 2017)
- 4th place in Milan Sanremo in 2016, also in the top 8 in 2015 and 2017
