Retired French sprinter Nacer Bouhani and his former team, Arkéa-B&B Hotels, have sued the Tour of Turkey for a total of €6.9 million in damages after he crashed in the 2022 edition of the Tour of Turkey.

Buhani was involved in a multi-rider crash on the second stage of the race in April when a spectator walking on the road got out of the way of the peloton and broke a vertebra in his neck.

"After last year's catastrophic crash, which resulted in a broken neck and a long rehab, I was a shadow of myself. I fought to get back to my level, body and soul, but to no avail. Life made a different decision," Bouhanni wrote on Instagram when he announced his retirement last October.

Bouhanni, who still undergoes weekly physical therapy on his neck, is seeking €2.7 million in damages from the accident from the Turkish Cycling Federation, which organizes the Tour of Turkey.

Meanwhile, French WorldTour team Arkéa-B&B Hotels is seeking €4.2 million in damages for lost revenue due to the accident, which also took down Mirko Maestri, Kevin Ledanois, and Manuel Peñalver.

According to L'Equipe, Buchany's lawyers claim that "if the organizers had respected the safety standards imposed by the UCI, the accident would not have happened."

Emmanuel Hubert, manager of Arkea B&B Hotels, said that as a result of Bouhanni's inability to work for such a long period of time, his team lost UCI points.

"In Turkey, Nasser was close to paralysis," Hubert told L'Equipe. Nasser is a good guy and I wanted him to win a race before he retired."

Bouhanni spent 13 years in the professional peloton, racing exclusively for French teams such as FDJ, Cofidis, and Arcare. He won 70 professional victories, including three stage wins at the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, and the points jersey at the 2014 Giro. His last pro victory was at La Rue Tourangelle in 2022, three weeks before the Tour of Turkey crash.