Former professional Nacer Bouhanni runs one of the fastest marathons ever recorded by a professional cyclist
Nacer Bouhanni hasn’t always had the best reputation in the cycling peloton. The French sprinter hung up his bike at the end of last year but has never stopped being active. Bouhanni was involved in boxing, but especially running.
It turns out he was working towards a marathon, having already completed a fast half marathon in Paris earlier this year. But last weekend in Frankfurt, the entire route of 42 kilometers and 195 meters awaited the winner of three stages in the Giro and Vuelta.
And he succeeded! Nacer Bouhanni completed the classic distance in a breathtaking time of 2 hours, 34 minutes and 36 seconds. It may be surprising that an ex-sprinter would set such a fast time in a marathon, but all in all, sprinters in road cycling are of course endurance athletes who still achieve a good result.
To give you an idea of how great the achievement was, WielerRevue lists that the fastest time set by a former professional cyclist on the marathon course is 2 hours and 26 minutes by Leonardo Calzavara, in the late 90s for some smaller Italian teams started. A more familiar name: Adam Hansen, the current head of the CPA, achieved a time of 2 hours and 30 minutes.
