The first edition of the inaugural Hammer Series (UCI 2.1) gets underway this Friday at Sportzone Limburg in the Netherlands and Team Sunweb line up with their recently crowned Giro d’Italia winner Tom Dumoulin.

The Hammer Series is a brand new concept from Velon that combines three days of racing in a bid to win points in Climb, Sprint and Chase races – with the best team to be crowned as winner of the race. Five riders out of a selection of seven will enter the daily races. The opening stage is one for the climbers, with 11 laps of a seven kilometre circuit containing two 8.5 percent ascents.

Day two is all about the sprinters, with eight laps of a fast 12.4 kilometre hunt for points before a quick dash to the line. The final stage, a 50 kilometre team time trial, with riders starting in order and time interval of their placing on the leader board. The first team over the line is the winner of the event, earning the best team title.

From Team Sunweb’s six rider line up, a five rider line up will be compiled on Thursday for each of the three races. Team Sunweb coach Dirk Reuling said: “This is a totally different race than to anything we’ve done before. In the Climb race we aim to collect points from the break and for the Sprint race we have Max and Zico as our fast guys to collect points. With that we aim to start in a good position for the Chase.”

Race schedule:
Hammer Climb – Friday June 2, 3-5:15PM CET (7-9:15AM MDT)
Hammer Sprint – Saturday June 3, 3:15-5:15PM CET (7:15-9:15AM MDT)
Hammer Chase – Sunday June 4, 3-5:15PM (7-9:15AM MDT)

Team Sunweb Line-Up
Tom Dumoulin (NED)
Lennard Kämna (GER)
Ramon Sinkeldam (NED)
Albert Timmer (NED)
Zico Waeytens (BEL)
Max Walscheid (GER)

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