Nacer Bouhanni of Cofidis has won the GP de Denain Porte du Hainaut for the second year in a row.
This 204km race in Denain, France, first won by Irishman Seamus Elliott in 1959, now legendary commentator Paul Sherwen in 1993 and last year by Nacer Bouhanni, is a 1.1 race on the UCI European tour.
An early break of four was caught after Tiesj Benoot of Lotto Soudal had taken the KOM points after fourteen kilometres but not long after a break featuring Ludwig De Winter of Walloon Bruxelles, Alexandre Geniez of FDJ and Seb Turgot of AG2R established and they were able to get more than three minutes clear.
That lead stood at 2.50 with less than ninety kilometres left and 2.45 thirty five kilometres later.
With a lead of 1.15 inside the final fifteen kilometres, Geniez and Turgot dropped De Winter. Geniez decided that he was the man for the job and then dropped Turgot before going clear with a ten second lead with five kilometres left.
There were two small crashes in the peloton but half a kilometre later, what was left of the peloton had caught Geniez.
This set up a bunch sprint and there was Nacer Bouhanni to take the victory ahead of Boris Vallee, Barbier, R Kreder, Sam Dumoulin, Bodiot, Ruffoni, Manzin, Dupont and Bryan Coquard.