Our team was again in the spotlight at the third and final event of the Hammer Series, held in Hong Kong.
The Hammer Sprint, comprising ten laps of a 4.25km challenging circuit, saw Dries Devenyns, Philippe Gilbert, Fabio Jakobsen, Davide Martinelli and Jhonatan Narvaez get off to a superb start, mopping up points at the sprints and moving to the top of the leader board as early as the second lap, only to find out at the end of the race, as they were celebrating the win, that the result has been amended by the organizers due to some riders that punctured, took a lap out and accidentally rejoined the front group.
As consequence, our squad moved down to second in the overall classification and began the 21.5km-long Hammer Chase team time trial in second position, with a deficit of 20 seconds. Despite going full gas on the lumpy and technical circuit in Hong Kong – which included several U-turns and a short hill averaging 6% – and stopping the clock in 26:58 (for one of the fastest times of the day), the Quick-Step Floors riders couldn't close the gap on Mitchelton-Scott, who went on to win the overall standings and the series.
Quick-Step Floors capped off the day by finishing second in the Hammer Series, after showing a remarkable consistency throughout the season, always in the top five at the three events of the competition – Stavanger (4th), Limburg (1st) and Hong Kong (2nd). From here, the riders will fly to China, for the last appointment of the season, the six-day Tour of Guangxi.
Photo credit: ©Mark Van Hecke/ Getty Images
