LottoNL-Jumbo set the fastest time and seemed ready to take the day’s victory. After the stage six teams, including LottoNL-Jumbo – received a five-minute time penalty for drafting and the day’s win went to team Sunweb. 

“The first lap was very nice, after that is became bazaar,” Tom Leezer said about the Hammer Chase. “Fighting for your position before the corner on a time trial bike and staying with the team… I think it was very exciting to watch, but maybe we should evolve this part of the race.” 

This was the first time for the three-day series, a new concept due to take place in other locations. 

“If you compete in it, it hurts, but to watch the race is fantastic. Hopefully, we will get series of nice events, much like this one.” 

“Without the time penalty, we would have won”, Sport Director Mathieu Heijboer said. “You could see it go wrong when the teams grouped together. The teams rode in each other’s wheel, because of that, it went very fast. It was not an honest battle anymore. 

“I think we had a very strong team and maybe we could have won. As the race went, you can’t talk about a stolen win. There is much to learn from this."

Heijboer enjoyed the new Hammer Series and considered it a “success.” 

“The issue we had today is something we need to do better next time, but we had two spectacular days and the battle for the win was also spectacular.”