Nat Bromhead
Trek-Segafredo have won the second of the three-event Hammer Series, taking out the first-ever Hammer Sprint at Sportzone Limburg in Holland overnight.
The rocket-fast race was marred by a crash on lap three with Orica-Scott’s Caleb Ewan forced to abandon. Ewan suffered road rash but no serious injury. Taking up where Ewan left off, Orica-Scott’s Roger Kluge put in a super effort to score maximum points for the team, winning the 6th lap.
BMC Racing Team fast man Daniel Oss was also involved in the crash, Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors Pro Cycling) was dropped from the peloton just after that crash and also abandoned.
In two hours of non-stop action, Trek-Segafredo riders Jasper Stuyven, Boy Van Poppel, Giacomo Nizzolo, Matthias Brändle and Gregory Daniel worked together to amass a total of 70.7 points on eight laps of the flat 12.4km circuit.
Team Sky will start tonight’s decisive Hammer Chase first, 32 seconds ahead of Team Sunweb. Still in with a podium chance, rica Scott will start the time trial 2 minutes behind Team Sky.
The Hammer Series is live streamed via the organisers’s and team’s Facebook pages. It can also be viewed via the Global Cycling Network YouTube channel.
Top 10 result: Hammer Sprint
1 Trek-Segafredo 70.7 (15″ bonus)
2 Lotto Soudal 61.8 (12″ bonus)
3 Cannondale-Drapac Pro Cycling Team 59.6 (10″ bonus)
4 Team Sky 50.9 (8″ bonus)
5 NIPPO Vini Fantini 40.4 (6″ bonus)
6 Team LottoNL-Jumbo 35.4 (5″ bonus)
7 Team Sunweb 30 (4″ bonus)
8 Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team 26.5 (3″ bonus)
9 Quick-Step Floors 24.3 (2″ bonus)
10 ORICA-SCOTT 23.1 (1″ bonus)
Hammer Chase start order – Group 1 (16:05 CET)
1. Team Sky
2. Team Sunweb +32”
3. Nippo-Vini Fantini +1’00”
4. Lotto Soudal +1’12”
4. Movistar Team +1’29”
5. Cannondale-Drapac +1’49”
6. ORICA-SCOTT +2’02”
7. Team LottoNL-Jumbo +2’16”
Feature image: Mitch Docker in action during the Hammer Sprint. Orica-Scott/ TDW Sport.
