Hammer Series 2018 (25/5-27/5, 1/6-3/6 & 14/10)

[RedheadDane]

RHD, yes, Betancur won the stage for his team but only because he amassed a lot of points over several laps. In stage 2, Vanmarcke crossed the line showing off his team badge only to be told that actually he'd finished 3rd, with Trek riders buried deep within the bunch being the ones who actually won.

So, sometimes crossing the line first means you - or in this case your team - won, sometimes it doesn't.
And of course last year's event was a rather impressive case of "He's Back!" for Betancur.

 

[Tarnum]

Awsome Format.
I don't get the difference regarding the TTT in comparison to last year. What has exactly changed?

Last year the points the teams got meant the difference in starting time. So for instance if the first 2 teams were really close they could start 5 seconds apart and if they had a big difference they could start 2 minutes apart. Now the first 2 teams will start 30 seconds apart, regardless of the point difference.

Last year a lot of teams in the middle of the pack were very close together which led to the big bunch up. With this system they are trying to avoid that.

 

[Gigs_98]

@Libertine Seguros
No the tour should not put intermediate sprints every ten kilometers but again, this isn't supposed to be the tour just as the tour isn't supposed to be like this.
I think it might actually have been me who brought up the ski cross comparisons, but I'm not sure. Anyway I think the much better skiing comparison at least according to you would be the alpine skiing city events which have basically replaced the alpine combined events, which is tragic. (For all you non alpine skiing fans or said differently 99.9% of you, a few years back the international skiing federation had the idea to make parallel slaloms, so two skiers ski at the same time on parallel slopes and who finishes first gets to the next round, in big cities like Munich, Stockholm or Oslo to have fast paced races. Now that new discipline which doesn't have anything to do with what alpine skiing fans like about alpine skiing has replaced an old discipline to the anger of pretty much all big fans of the sport). The point where I disagree with you is that I think this race is a result of the trend to make short races and it won't make the trend bigger. I think this kind of race and old cycling can coexist without a problem. Ofc a new race on the calendar means that it will take away attention from other races but that's the case for all new races and all races were new at some point.
About the whole americanized names, yeah I agree, Velon is acting like a ten year old trying to come up with cool names for bike races, but as I wrote before, I don't mind that too much.

Edit: I agree about the ticket prices, that's completely stupid, I simply didn't know that before you posted it. Same about the number of hammer series races they want to make. I'm fine with three like this year but 10 would really be too much.

 

[Gigs_98]

Awsome Format.
I don't get the difference regarding the TTT in comparison to last year. What has exactly changed?

Last year the points the teams got meant the difference in starting time. So for instance if the first 2 teams were really close they could start 5 seconds apart and if they had a big difference they could start 2 minutes apart. Now the first 2 teams will start 30 seconds apart, regardless of the point difference.

Last year a lot of teams in the middle of the pack were very close together which led to the big bunch up. With this system they are trying to avoid that.

Are you sure? I actually think they were using the exact same format

 

[Tarnum]

Awsome Format.
I don't get the difference regarding the TTT in comparison to last year. What has exactly changed?

Last year the points the teams got meant the difference in starting time. So for instance if the first 2 teams were really close they could start 5 seconds apart and if they had a big difference they could start 2 minutes apart. Now the first 2 teams will start 30 seconds apart, regardless of the point difference.

Last year a lot of teams in the middle of the pack were very close together which led to the big bunch up. With this system they are trying to avoid that.

Are you sure? I actually think they were using the exact same format

I just looked it up and I was partially mistaken. Last year they had a combination of points and bonus seconds. Points determined starting position and bonus seconds determined the gaps.

This is one of the rare cases where Dutch wikipedia was more useful than the English version: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_Series_2017

 

[Parker]

1. It was something different. And different things are at least interesting.

2. I saw little of it but a lot of people seemed to enjoy it. More than they enjoyed a lot of races on the calendar.

3. Writing off a format on the basis of one edition is stupid. To quote Ernest Hemingway "The first draft of everything is sh**"

4. If historical races in Belgium and Luxembourg etc die it's because no-one is interested in watching them. It's not Velon's fault.

5. There will always be a lot of people who are resistant to change. They usual try and make out that they are the guardians of the soul of the thing being changed and 'real' fans.

6. In around 10 years cycling will be in financial crisis without major change (just my opinion, don't ask for proof)

 

[Nirvana]

Last year I watched the first stage just for curiosity, maybe it's entertaining but I can't like it, I want to watch more 250 kms alpine stages not more of this circus.

 

[jaylew]

I watched it last year and it was kinda fun. Needed some tweaks but I'm always interested in something a little different. I'll certainly watch again. I don't understand the over the top negativity from some people but then I don't ever understand that kind of attitude when it comes to races.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

The main problem is the timing. Hold this in January in Australia before the TDU or in October in Japan next to the Japan Cup - fine for me. But putting this **** in the middle of the season in competition to traditional races that need the big names attending here is a big NO.

 

[Bardamu]

Re:

Of course riders want to do this crap, it's getting paid for three days with a combined racing distance as long as your average GT stage. It's car crash racing, with brevity used as a synonym for excitement. THREE of these f***ing dog and pony shows in the season is a sign that this is going to be aggressively shoved down our throat until racing with any real endurance, and the point-to-point method that's served the sport so well for ITS ENTIRE EXISTENCE is killed off in favour of one hour "sufferfests" and embarrassing buzzwords.

I refer you back to the finest, most succinct, and most accurate post that has possibly ever been made on the forum:

No thanks no

**** off velon

Cycling embracing the Hammer Series is rather like sleeping with somebody who's HIV positive. It can be pleasurable, and potentially it can be done safely, but every time you do it, you carry with you the risk of contracting something that is inherently harmful, can potentially be lived with without significant ill effect but that will change you forever, and in less fortunate cases can potentially cause you a slow and agonizing premature death.

Anybody who tunes in to this, I will hold you personally responsible when races with long and glorious histories like Belgium and Luxembourg die. I will hold you personally responsible when the calendar consists of 70-80km races and Milan-San Remo is a dying ember considered as comically overlong as Bordeaux-Paris, and everything is held on closed circuits you pay to attend so you can pay to stand by the roadside and use festival toilets and eat overpriced popcorn. This Hammer Series bulls*** should have been a one-and-done, but no, because the men with powerpoint presentations in Velon decreed that this is the future, they're going to shove this down our throat until we're too gorged on crap to be able to stomach any real food. This isn't the sport I fell in love with. If when I first watched cycling I was confronted with "one hour sufferfests" and points systems that make a madison look like a match sprint in terms of clarity, I wouldn't still be watching. I wouldn't even have tuned back in. It's road cycling for X-Games marketing executives. "Road cycling... TO THE MAX". Bonus points for a flip. Maybe they can have a "joker lap" like Rallycross where each rider has to take a slightly steeper road but they can choose which lap they take it. Why not? After all, we can't have people watching that OLD, boring cycling where endurance is a factor and fans can tell who won because they crossed the finishing line first. Good god no.

And yes, this may pain me to say, but f*** you Amets Txurruka for betraying us all and going on with this charade.

This

 

[mb2612]

The criticism that they might still the sport to dictators seems a bit off base as cycling has managed to do that plenty by itself.

 

[yaco]

Always though you could have a round of the Hammer Series in the week between the TDU and the Cadel Evans Road Race.

 

[Koronin]

Some of the teams that sent squads to it last year don't race the smaller continental races doing on at this time of year. January or Oct could be good times as there are less races then for this to compete against. Although when you get to Oct so many riders have already ended their season.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Some of the teams that sent squads to it last year don't race the smaller continental races doing on at this time of year. January or Oct could be good times as there are less races then for this to compete against. Although when you get to Oct so many riders have already ended their season.

Yeah, those spots would be preferable for this type of event. Its very reminiscent of track cycling anyways..

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

This made for TV event doesn't seem to be on TV (UK Eurosport at least). Sort of defeats the object.

 

[janraaskalt]

Re:

This made for TV event doesn't seem to be on TV (UK Eurosport at least). Sort of defeats the object.

It's supposed to have a live stream via Velon.

 

[Tarnum]

The official youtube stream (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70VuonEU9e4) has around a 100 viewers. Not really a good sign.

 

[Durden93]

Re:

Of course riders want to do this crap, it's getting paid for three days with a combined racing distance as long as your average GT stage. It's car crash racing, with brevity used as a synonym for excitement. THREE of these f***ing dog and pony shows in the season is a sign that this is going to be aggressively shoved down our throat until racing with any real endurance, and the point-to-point method that's served the sport so well for ITS ENTIRE EXISTENCE is killed off in favour of one hour "sufferfests" and embarrassing buzzwords.

I refer you back to the finest, most succinct, and most accurate post that has possibly ever been made on the forum:

No thanks no

**** off velon

Cycling embracing the Hammer Series is rather like sleeping with somebody who's HIV positive. It can be pleasurable, and potentially it can be done safely, but every time you do it, you carry with you the risk of contracting something that is inherently harmful, can potentially be lived with without significant ill effect but that will change you forever, and in less fortunate cases can potentially cause you a slow and agonizing premature death.

Anybody who tunes in to this, I will hold you personally responsible when races with long and glorious histories like Belgium and Luxembourg die. I will hold you personally responsible when the calendar consists of 70-80km races and Milan-San Remo is a dying ember considered as comically overlong as Bordeaux-Paris, and everything is held on closed circuits you pay to attend so you can pay to stand by the roadside and use festival toilets and eat overpriced popcorn. This Hammer Series bulls*** should have been a one-and-done, but no, because the men with powerpoint presentations in Velon decreed that this is the future, they're going to shove this down our throat until we're too gorged on crap to be able to stomach any real food. This isn't the sport I fell in love with. If when I first watched cycling I was confronted with "one hour sufferfests" and points systems that make a madison look like a match sprint in terms of clarity, I wouldn't still be watching. I wouldn't even have tuned back in. It's road cycling for X-Games marketing executives. "Road cycling... TO THE MAX". Bonus points for a flip. Maybe they can have a "joker lap" like Rallycross where each rider has to take a slightly steeper road but they can choose which lap they take it. Why not? After all, we can't have people watching that OLD, boring cycling where endurance is a factor and fans can tell who won because they crossed the finishing line first. Good god no.

And yes, this may pain me to say, but f*** you Amets Txurruka for betraying us all and going on with this charade.

So apparently cycling is the only type of entertainment in the world which should chamnge to cater to the new needs of its demographics. If old races die it’s because they became stale and uninteresting to the viewer. I don’t agree with the idea that a long race is necessarily a good one. If a 250km race only has as much action as a 50km race, is it more entertaining? I would say no. There are hundreds of pro cycling races each year. I thimk it’s silly to fret over short races like these and short mountain stages in the GTs.

 

[Samamba]

It's a great event to see some talented youngsters, that's it.
Tolhoek, Asgreen, Lambrecht, Hamilton & Knox doing good today for example.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Lambrecht is like a pistol ***!
Wait did I hear that right?

 

[luckyboy]

Re:

The official youtube stream (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70VuonEU9e4) has around a 100 viewers. Not really a good sign.

Yeah that was a bit sad.

It's kinda fun, just kind of hard to get invested in when it doesn't really matter who 'wins' the stage. I guess it's interesting from the pov that teams can select certain riders for just one stage, like Albasini today. Nice to see a bunch of the young guys fighting up there anyway.

Writing a report on it has been really strange, compared to a normal race anyway.

 

[RedheadDane]

It matters in the sense that the team who gathered the most points during the stage wins it. Crossing the line first just isn't a guarantee that you(r team) will win the stage.
Except in the chase - at least for the teams in the "finale heat", and we saw how well that went last year.