Cycling news - Quick-Step claim 30th win of season with Hammer Sprint victory in Stavanger

From the opening lap, Deceuninck - Quick-Step had sights set on Hammer Sprint success with Davide Martinelli claiming 81 points behind maximum points getter Max Walscheid (Team Sunweb) on the line of the 87.3-kilometre Hammer Series race around Stavanger’s city centre on Saturday.

Quick-Step neo-pro Remco Evenepoel (BEL) found himself in a five-man break on the very next lap of the 10-lap circuit to add to the team’s point total on the day, as did Colombian teammate Alvaro Hodeg, both of whom took double points, 162 and 131 respectively for second and third on Lap 3.

In the end, the Belgian-registered WorldTour team earned 794 points on the day, 56 over Team Sunweb and 174 over last year’s Hammer Stavanger winner and overall series champion Mitchelton-Scott.

“We feel amazing! It was a hard race, harder than yesterday I must say, but we rode a flawless race and managed to get a lot of points in the first part. From that point on, it was all about keeping an eye on our opponents, making sure we maintained our advantage,” said 2015 Czech Champion Petr Vakoc after Quick-Step’s 30th win of 2019. “The weekend isn’t over yet, we still have the Hammer Chase on Sunday, and we hope to be again in the mix for another strong result.”

With only the three-lap, 16.3km team time trial pursuit, Hammer Chase, remaining in the first stop of the multi-country, team-based series from pro cycling organisation Velon launched in 2017, Friday’s Hammer Climb winner Jumbo-Visma maintains series control with 1,494 points after two days of racing followed by Sunweb (1,357) and Mitchelton-Scott (1,341).