cycling: heartbeat finale! Team Sky first winners at the Hammer Series

Cycling: The first race of the Hammer Series in Limburg ended today with an exciting Hammer Chase. The Sky team, which started first, saved their lead over Tom Dumoulin and his team-mates from Team Sunweb. Orica-Scott is third, ahead of Lotto Soudal and Movistar.

An overall extremely gripping premiere of the Hammer Series found a worthy finale in an appropriate Hammer Chase. The battle for overall victory in the team competition in particular was extremely hard fought. After the Hammer Climb and the Hammer Sprint, the British team from Sky started the race as favorites with a lead of 39 seconds over Sunweb. In the end, however, it got extremely tight, also because the newly crowned Giro winner and time trial specialist Tom Dumoulin set an enormous pace with his teammates. A sprint at the end of the strength finally decided the race in favor of the favored team from Great Britain.

The battle behind them was also fierce and it was no less close: just nine seconds separated the third-placed team from Orica-Scott and the bottom of group two, Nippo Vini Fantini. All in all, a thoroughly successful start to the new racing series, which gave fans on site, at home in front of the screens as well as teams and drivers a lot of joy. Tom Leezer from LottoNL-Jumbo best described the race format: "If you go with me, it hurts like hell. But watching the race is fantastic. I hope we get more events like this.” BMC pilot Daniel Oss also agreed: “I think the Hammer Series is a cool concept. As with anything new, there are always ways to make it simpler and better. It's a completely different way of racing than what we're used to. But overall I think it's a great way for spectators to experience cycling in a different way."

Final result Hammer Chase Limburg 2017