Team LottoNL-Jumbo finished the Tour of Qatar with Moreno Hofland in seventh place in the fifth and final stage. During the stage along Doha’s Corniche, it was clear that the team’s lead-out is improving even if it was not good enough to compete with the day’s winner Alexander Kristoff (Katusha). Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) placed second and won the general classification.

The final stage from Sealine Beach presented a fourth chance for the sprinters. After Hofland finished seventh in a chaotic bunch sprint, sports director Jan Boven and team captain Robert Wagner took their time to evaluate the lead-out.

“I noticed that we’re improving,” Boven said. “We were at least able to sprint today. We made a plan and we were able to carry out the plan until the final 500 metres of the stage. When you look at our development during this race, you can see that we started with a stage in which we were totally blown away. That was a shock. The second day we already went better and Jos van Emden placed second in the time trial on day three. Those performances gave us some faith again.

"Yesterday, we had our best day, but we screwed up in the bunch sprint because we weren’t focussed after forcing the echelon. Today, we stayed quiet, but Moreno lost our lead-out with 300 metres to go. He has to improve in that part of sprinting. He is used to do the sprint with one man, but we’re preparing it with the whole team now.”

“The Tour of Qatar is a tough race with the wind,” Wagner added. “A perfect sprint lead-out maybe looks easy, but every team wants to do it the same way. Besides that, every race requires improvisation. We improved in that part this week. Yesterday, we forced an echelon, but threw away a big chance afterwards. Today, we made some solid plans and performed them perfectly until the last turn. Moreno lost our wheels in that turn. That’s a pity because we formed a beautiful lead-out. The only way to take those last steps is to ride more races with each other.”

Because of the improvement, Boven was satisfied with the Tour of Qatar. “We must be. Except for the first day, we did a good job every day and showed ourselves. The way the riders were working together to develop the sprint lead-out gives me a great feeling. The next steps are about confidence.”