In the Tour des Fjords, a five-day stage race in the west of Norway, a strong team lined up for Wanty-Groupe Gobert with among others stage winner and number three of the overall classification in 2014 Jérôme Baugnies.

“Baugnies fell ill in the Tour of Norway and has been on antiobiotics for four days," sports director Steven De Neef explained. "You can't expect him to suddenly be there again on the top of his game in this Tour des Fjords." 

The other names on the start list were Marco Marcato, Marco Minnaard, Francis De Greef, Yannick Eijssen and Lander Seynaeve. Eijssen and Seynaeve left the race that was tormented by cold weather and torrential rain,in the first two days.

Marcato really suffered with the weather conditions. Last year he showed with a sixth place in the overall and four top ten finishes that the race in Norway suits him. This year he finished 18th overall, after two top ten finishes on the first and last day of the race. 

“I had expected more of myself," the Italian rider explained. "In the penultimate stage I missed the decisive breakaway and that was a real shame. The first days were so tough. It was very cold because of the rain. It influences your performance tremendously. To me it became one big battle against nature this week." 

Marco Minnaard rode very attentively in Saturday's stage. He was part of the decisive breakaway and finished 12th, his best result of the season so far. He laid the foundations for a 14th place in the overall of the Tour des Fjords.

“However, I didn't feel 100% fit," the Dutchman explains. "But I do think my form is very good at the moment. I hope to extend this form towards the Tour de Suisse in two weeks. Hopefully I can move another step forwards after some rest this week."

“Everyone tries their best this week but we came to Tour des Fjords for a victory," De Neef concludes. "We just missed that little bit extra to be really good. That can be caused by very small things. I am not saying the guys that finished the race were bad. Not al all. We do finish third in the team ranking after all."