Hammer Series: The Verdict

Velon's new race format debuted over the weekend with the aim of bringing “impact racing” that was “appealing, modern and accessible to fans”. We asked a cycling nut and CW contributor and a casual follower of the sport what they made of it.

Steve Puddicombe:

Cycling writer and regular CW contributor

In a sport as tied to its history as cycling, where all the biggest and best-loved Grand Tours and Classics also tend to be the oldest, it is hard to successfully introduce new events.

Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped Velon from launching the inaugural Hammer Series, an intriguingly innovative three-day event that took place in Limburg last weekend.The format is very original, with riders earning points for their team rather than being ranked by time in an individual classification. From squads of seven,teams select five riders to compete in three separate circuit-based stages, each focusing on a different discipline — day one is the ‘Hammer Climb’, day two the ‘Hammer Sprint’, and day-three a team time trial pursuit called the ‘Hammer Chase’.