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Team Cofidis set hopeful eyes on Tour de France after great Critérium du Dauphiné performance
2015-06-15
Nacer Bouhanni’s two stage wins and green jersey, plus Danni Navarro’s outstanding performance in the queen stage, have nourished the Orbea-sponsored team’s hopes for the French grand tour.
Could there be a better prelude to the Tour de France than a brilliant performance at Criterium du Dauphiné? The guys at Team Cofidis know this well. Nacer Bouhanni won two of the three stages with a sprint finish. And Dani Navarro showed what a skill mountain goat he is, riding up in the toughest stage of the race on Saturday.
But the most important ingredient for a successful Tour de France is the esprit the corps that characterised Team Cofidis at Critérium du Dauphiné. Bouhanni’s first win would not have been possible without his teammates. ‘Geoffrey Soupe, Julien Simon and Christophe Laporte were there to support me and helped me stage the ideal situation,’ Nacer said after the stage on Monday.
On the following day, Bouhanni grabbed the green jersey for best sprinter, which he kept until the end of the race. And in stage four, he did it again: Julien Simon pedalled like mad to land the sprint, while Nacer flew from the back to cross the finish line in triumph.
Dani Navarro’s spectacular performance
After Bouhanni’s achievements there came the mountains. Time for Dani Navarro to shine. And he lived up to everyone’s expectations, despite his scarce participation in races this season due to several injuries.
With 35km to go on the queen stage, the rider from Asturias left the breakaways behind and fought with Austria’s Riccardo Zoidl for victory. He opened a gap of almost 3 minutes with 13km remaining, but the hostilities to control the GC neutralised his attempt.
Navarro was very happy with his performance at Critérium du Dauphiné, though: ‘I went from less to more, so my balance is positive. We’re on the right track for the Tour.’
This is a shared feeling in the team. They rely on their seven victories this season and, more importantly, on the solid ties they have built both on and off the road.
The feeling goes beyond riders themselves to encompass the joint work done by Orbea and Team Cofidis since the beginning of the season, which has already resulted in bikes that meet the riding needs of the world’s most demanding races, like the Tour de France or its prelude, Critérium du Dauphiné.
