Hammer Series 2017: Hammer Climb Results

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Carlos Betancur (Movistar) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Movistar opened the Hammer Series with a win (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Gianluca Brambilla and Iuri Filosi (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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The Hammer Series in Limburg (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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All eyes were on Giro winner Tom Dumoulin (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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The front group was quite small (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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The Movistar team (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Mat Hayman (Orica-Scott) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Tom Bohli and Daniel Oss (BMC) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Samuel Sanchez (BMC) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Lennard Kämna (Team Sunweb) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Tao Geoghegan Hart (Sky) chases after his crash (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Carlos Betancur (Movistar) battles Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) for the points (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Tao Geoghegan Hart (Sky) was leading but had a crash (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Stefan Küng (BMC) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Gianluca Brambilla (Quick-Step Floors) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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The peloton split early in the race (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Zak Dempster (Israel Cycling Academy) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Miles Scotson (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Israeli champion Guy Sagiv (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Tao Geoghegan Hart (Sky) leads the race (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Andrea Guardini and Sep Vanmarcke (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Zico Waeyten (Sunweb) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Will Clarke (Cannondale-Drapac) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

Carlos Betancur was on song during the opening competition of the inaugural Hammer Series to help deliver Movistar to victory in the Hammer Climb. The Colombian was part of a six-man group that escaped early on and secured top points on most of the laps, and launched an attack on the final lap to take double points on the line.

The race took place over 11 laps of a 7km circuit and the attacks began from the gun, with the peloton fracturing very early in the event. Daniel Oss (BMC Racing) and Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) took the top points on the first two laps, but then a five-man group escaped with Betancur, Tao Geoghegan Hart (Sky), Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), Victor Campanaerts (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Iuri Filosi (Nippo - Vini Fantini).

Movistar racked up a commanding lead in the final standings with 144.8 points. There was competition for second place on the table with Team Sunweb and Team Sky duking it out. Team Sky’s Tao Geoghegan Hart had been racking up the points for his team until he crashed on a sharp corner in the final laps. The crash took him out of contention for the top points, allowing Sunweb to climb up the standings with the help of Giro d’Italia winner Tom Dumoulin. Sunweb ended the day with 98.9 points compared to Team Sky’s 84.7.

The points also earned the teams time bonuses toward Sunday's chase, with Movistar earning 15 seconds to Sunweb's 12. Sky will get a 10 second bonus.

"I have trained so hard in the last couple of months, training at altitude. A team like this deserves the form I have here. It was an amazing performance by the team and we came here with the idea of winning," Betancur said.

Points ranking

#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Movistar Team	144.8	pts
2	Team Sunweb	98.9
3	Team Sky	84.7
4	Orica-Scott	83.3
5	BMC Racing Team	75.2
6	Nippo - Vini Fantini	53.6
7	Quick-Step Floors	53
8	Team LottoNl-Jumbo	27.7
9	Lotto Soudal	23.7
10	Cannondale-Drapac	2.3
11	Roompot - Nederlandse Loterij
12	Bahrain-Merida
13	Trek-Segafredo
14	UAE Team Emirates
15	Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
16	Israel Cycling Academy

Time standings
#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Movistar Team	15	pts
2	Team Sunweb	12
3	Team Sky	10
4	Orica-Scott	8
5	BMC Racing Team	6
6	Nippo - Vini Fantini	5
7	Quick-Step Floors	4
8	Team LottoNl-Jumbo	3
9	Lotto Soudal	2
10	Cannondale-Drapac	1
11	Roompot - Nederlandse Loterij
12	Bahrain-Merida
13	Trek-Segafredo
14	UAE Team Emirates
15	Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
16	Israel Cycling Academy

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