Lost Boys: Nacer Bouhanni – Fighting a roughhouse image

Throughout the Tour de France, former VeloNews editor John Wilcockson is profiling the unlucky riders who are forced to abandon, either due to injury, exhaustion, or bad luck.

Imagine for a moment that you are Nacer Bouhanni.

You’re a pure sprinter who has started the Tour de France four times in search of a stage win. You’ve won 69 races in your career, but still nothing at the Tour. You were the French national champion in 2012 at age 21, out-sprinting no less a rider than Arnaud Démare. But you get no respect. In fact, you frequently get insults thrown at you. You’ve been DQ’d for dangerous maneuvers in mass-sprint finishes. And you’ve been racially abused on social media because your parents are Algerian and you’re a practicing Muslim.

That’s a lot of tough stuff to face in life without also having to overcome the severe challenges you face in the Tour de France.

But Bouhanni is a fighter. His sport of preference before cycling was boxing. And he can still slug it out in the gym. He was accused of roughhouse tactics at the Cholet-Pays de la Loire race this spring that forced British sprinter Jake Stewart into the barriers. Bouhanni admitted his misdemeanor but said the move was not intentional. The viral video of that sprint triggered racist insults.

On Sunday’s stage 15 to Andorra, even though a rest day beckoned, Bouhanni was left behind as soon as the early attacks began. “I didn’t want to get dropped,” he said.” I went as deep as I could.” He chased alone for almost two hours until it became clear there was no chance of survival. Still only 30, Bouhanni’s dream of winning the sprint on the Champs-Élysées will have to wait another year.

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The Tour’s Lost Boys: In the first week 19 riders dropped out; another 20 left the race by the second rest day, making a total of 39 abandons (see “Into the Third Week: Another 20 Lost Boys”). On stage 17, Steven Kruijswijk of Jumbo-Visma, who started feeling ill on the second rest day, was dropped early in the stage and climbed off. And two riders did not start stage 19: Michael Woods of Israel Start-Up Nation (now on his way to Tokyo to lead the three-man Canadian team in the Olympic road race) and Miguel Ángel López of Movistar (an alternate for the Colombian Olympic team hoping to ride the road race). So, the Tour’s 184-strong starting field has been reduced to 142.