Hammer Series

The Hammer Series was a series of three-day team competitions in road cycling .

The competition was organized by Velon , an association of cycling teams . The first Hammer Series race took place on June 2-4, 2017 in Limburg , the Netherlands, under the name Hammer Sportzone Limburg . Two further races in Switzerland and South Africa were entered in the calendars of the respective UCI Continental Circuits ; the Dutch and Swiss races in UCI category 2.1 and the South African race in the hors category . However, the South African and Swiss races were not held in 2017. In 2018, races were added in Stavanger, Norway, and Hong Kong .

Each Hammer Series race is divided into three sections. On the first day, the hammer sprint takes place on a flat course , with bonus seconds awarded to the first ten drivers on each lap. On the second day, the Hammer Climb takes place on a hilly course according to the same rules . In the final on day three, the Hammer Chase , the teams start with the seconds they have gained on the first two days. The team whose fourth driver of the approximately 50-kilometer race crosses the finish line first wins the overall standings.

Shortly after the World Cycling Federation Union Cycliste Internationale published new regulations for races that, like the Hammer Series , do not correspond to the standard typology of road competitions ("Other Races") at the beginning of March 2020 , Velon declared that the 2020 series would not take place. Velon , which had already lodged an antitrust complaint against the UCI with the European Commission in autumn 2019 , stated that the final trigger was that the UCI had "torpedoed" the planned women's race at Hammer Stavanger .