After breaking his collarbone in March at Gent-Wevelgem, Edvald Boasson Hagen has stood out at the Tour of Norway and the MTN-Qhubeka man looks back to his best.

"From my first sprint, I've felt good so I hope to be up there on GC after the two hard stages to come,' Boasson Hagen told Cyclingnews ahead of stage 3. "Seven days after my crash, I was able to train on rollers and it took me seventeen days only until I was able to ride my bike outside. For one month, I've remained at home training in Oslo and around, although it wasn't pain free. That's the reason why I didn't rush to racing again. I preferred to have some time to train properly. The initial plan was to take a break after Paris-Roubaix and resume racing at the Tour of Norway, so we kept that plan despite the crash.”

"Before Gent-Wevelgem, I was feeling stronger than in previous years," added the Norwegian who finished tenth in Milan-San Remo this year. 

Now his attention will turn to getting selected for MTN’s debut participation at the Tour de France, a race in which Boasson Hagen has won stages previously, taking two in 2011.

"I want to start winning some races again," he said. "Hopefully I'll do it before the Tour de France and also during the Tour de France. My condition will get better and better by July. It feels good to be back and hopefully I can show it. I don't know the composition of the MTN-Qhubeka team for the Tour yet but we won't have a GC rider and there'll be opportunities for breakaways. We have strong riders for different scenarios."