Nacer Bouhanni´s complicated season continued at the Tour de Pologne, with the French sprinter forced to abandon the WorldTour stage race after stage 5 due to gastroenteritis. Cofidis team management, however, are confident that he will be able to recover in time for the Vuelta a España, his major objective for the final part of the 2018 season. Bouhanni`s failure to secure a place in the Cofidis team for the Tour de France was enshrouded in controversy after a series of well-publicized disagreements. Bouhanni told Cyclingnews at the start of the Tour de Pologne that he was building his form steadily and was looking forward to the Vuelta a España, where he had won stages in 2014. However he struggled to compete in the three bunch sprints at the Tour de Pologne, with his best result 13th on stage 1 in Krakow.ADVERTISEMENT Cofidis directeur sportif Roberto Damiani said that Bouhanni´s latest exit was in no way planned but should not affect his participation in the upcoming Vuelta a España, which start on Saturday, August 25 in southern Spain. `It wasn´t expected, but after the first couple of stages he could barely eat and he had real problems with gastro. So we decided not to take any risks because he was really not well and the Vuelta a España is barely 15 days away,` Damiani told Cyclingnews on the final day of the race. `The idea was to do these last two stages and work on his endurance. But if you´re ill and you`re working on your endurance, you can end up doing yourself a lot more damage.
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