Nacer Bouhanni will not take part in the 2016 Tour de France. He suffered an attack at the team hotel on the night before the French national championship road race, requiring an emergency 4-stiches intervention.
It then turned out that Nacer received irrelevant care. In the face of the worsening situation, he had surgery on Tuesday at 18:00 at the Nancy CHU. The decision was made to give the priority to the rider’s health who now needs to rest in order to focus on new goals.
Into the Cofidis roster selected for the 2016 Tour de France, Nacer Bouhanni is replaced by Nicolas Edet. 3-times Tour de France starter, Nicolas has already demonstrated his climbing skills on this race. He will be one more asset in addition to Arnold Jeannesson and Daniel Navarro into the “mountain group”. The team’s strategy will be reoriented as a result of this withdrawal. The willingness and the determination of the whole team remain intact with the purpose of winning a stage.
Definite Team Lineup
- Borut Bozic (SLO) 35 ans / 3e participation
- Jérôme Cousin (FRA) 27 ans / 2e participation
- Nicolas Edet (FRA) 28 ans / 4e participation
- Arnold Jeannesson (FRA) 30 ans / 4e participation
- Christophe Laporte (FRA) 23 ans / 2e participation
- Cyril Lemoine (FRA) 33 ans / 5e participation
- Luis Angel Mate (ESP) 32 ans / 5e participation
- Daniel Navarro (ESP) 32 ans / 7e participation
- Geoffrey Soupe (FRA) 28 ans / 2e participation
Press Conference
The press conference is still scheduled on Friday at 14:00 at the Saint-Lô ASO Press Center. Nacer Bouhanni will not be attending as he will obviously not make the trip to the grand depart site in order to optimize recovery.
Team Cofidis general manager Yvon Sanquer will be available to answer questions in the company of the riders Christophe Laporte and Arnold Jeannesson.
