Nacer Bouhanni lashes back at Cédric Vasseur for Axel Zingle critics: "The only one who has a spasm at Cofidis is Vasseur himself"

In the sixth stage of Tour de France, Axel Zingle broke away from the peloton and joined Jonas Abrahamsen in a ride ahead of the bunch. This went against the plans of his team Cofidis. Team manager Cedric Vasseur was not happy with the action of his rider and criticized him publicly.

Vasseur's public criticism did not go down well with Nacer Bouhanni. The former Cofidis rider was angry about his former team boss on X. "The only one who has a spasm at Cofidis is Vasseur himself," wrote Bouhanni, who hung up his bike at the end of last year. "He can't even contain himself. The dirty laundry is washed in public. He has no guts, no charisma, nothing..."

"Axel had a spasm," was the verdict of the Cofidis team boss in a reaction published by RMC Sport on Saturday. "I don't know what he was thinking. We had no intention of having someone up front. It's stupid to attack when you have a sprinter in Bryan Coquard."

In the final, Zingle then failed to show up in preparation for the mass sprint. "He had to help Bryan, but we didn't see him," said the 53-year-old Vasseur. "So we're going to ask him for an explanation."

Cofidis sprinter Bryan Coquard finished 13th on Friday and 11th on Saturday - far from where Vasseur would've liked to see the experienced Frenchman. So Zingle's fault or not, it's obvious there are more sides to share the blame.