A very young five-man outfit was up there with the best in the longest team time trial of the season so far.
Three laps of an undulating 16.3km-long and non-technical course made up the Hammer Chase race, the final event of Hammer Stavanger, which Deceuninck – Quick-Step started in the finalists group, where our team was placed following a strong performance over the previous two days.
Seventh in the Hammer Climb and victorious in the Hammer Sprint at the inaugural Hammer Series appointment of this season, where a flawless collective effort landed our squad’s 30th victory of the year, Deceuninck – Quick-Step was the fourth-last starter and put together a really nice time trial, averaging 53.2km/h and covering the course in 56:33, a result just five seconds shy of a podium spot in the final general classification, where we concluded in sixth position.
Sports director Tom Steels made an analysis of our weekend in Norway: “We can be proud with our overall result and with how our young guys rode. Of course, the highlight was the Hammer Sprint win, where Petr – who we are very happy is back in such a good form – was a key player. Yves showed a good condition after a long break, Martinelli was also very helpful on all terrains, while Remco displayed a fantastic engine in the TTT. Last but not least, Alvaro was also impressive, even on the climbs, always there for us. Overall, we are proud of how they defended the team colours.”
Photo credit: ©Luc Claessen/ Getty Images
