After the Tour de France Femmes, AG Insurance-NXTG lined up for their next Women’s World Tour stage race; the Tour of Scandinavia through Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The team with Britt Knaven, Eline van Rooijen, Maureen Arens, Maud Rijnbeek, Julia Borgström and Amber Aernouts rode aggressively.

It was Eline’s first Women’s World Tour stage race and she often sprinted for the points for the green jersey.

“That green jersey was a goal of mine and we came close but Alison Jackson was too strong,” Eline said. “This was my first six-day stage, my first race in Scandinavia and then at World Tour level as well. The pace was high throughout the entire week. We did a great job as a team and really worked well together. The girls got me into the right position for the sprints. Sadly, that jersey was not possible so we start focusing on the general classification with Julia.”

Sports director Christian Kos looks back at a good week with AG Insurance-NXTG.

“The race is also called the Battle of the North and it was a battle. On the first days we rode for that green jersey which we sadly didn’t make but it was a great learning process to fight for a jersey together as a team.

On the final day Maud represented the team in a very long breakaway that got a great six minutes gap. When they were caught, we focused on the general classification with Julia again. She finished 13^th in the stage and 27^th in the overall. After a really hard block of racing with the Euros, Tour de France, two one-day races in Sweden with the national team and six days to finish it off here, this was the highest possible result and that’s okay.

The girls worked well together from day one. They really gained some great experience again and made the next steps,” Kos concluded.