Wanty-Groupe Gobert spent the past two weeks training in and around sunny Benidorm, Spain. The 21riders of which the team consists in 2015, did three training blocks of three days. Sports director Hilaire Van Der Schueren was happy with what he saw.
“The guys worked really hard here. We laid a solid foundation for the season to come. We also established the race schedules of all 21 riders until the Belgian road race championships at the end of June.”
Training took place in two separate groups. “New riders Enrico Gasparotto and Marco Marcato fitted well in the team from the beginning. They take real quality to the team. A rider like Marcato will be very important for our sprinter Roy Jans,” Van Der Schueren explains.
“But also young riders Lander Seynaeve, Simone Antonini, Tom Devriendt, Boris Dron and Yannick Eijssen received a warm welcome. The spirit in the team was great from the beginning.”
Wanty-Groupe Gobert will start the season with the GP Marseillaise and Etoile de Besseges. After that three teams will travel to Tropicale Amissa Bongo in Gabon, Volta ao Algarve and Ruta del Sol to prepare for the important Belgian opening weekend with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.
“I hope that we can achieve around 20 victories this year, including some nice UCI 1.1-races,” Van Der Schueren says. “In WorldTour-races like Tour of Flanders, E3-Prijs Harelbeke and Paris-Roubaix we want to ride for the podium places.”
“Last year we finished second in the Europe Tour. Our goal for this season is to be among the top three again.”
