Our squad is prepared and motivated for the last two races of the competition.
The 2018 Hammer Series champion will be decided in Hong Kong, and Quick-Step Floors is one of the three teams in hunt for the overall title. Second in the leader board with a total of 153 points, amassed in Stavanger and Limburg (where our squad came out on top of the general classification after a superb collective ride), Quick-Step Floors is ready for what promises to be quite the showdown on October 14.
The day will schedule two exciting races, the Hammer Sprint – which will see teams comprising five riders cover a 4.3km-long circuit ten times, with points up for grabs at the end of each lap – and the Hammer Chase later in the afternoon, a team time trial over held over 21.5 kilometers, starting and finishing on Salisbury Road at Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade.
Of the seven Quick-Step Floors riders who got to taste glory at Hammer Limburg in June, three will be at the start of the series' final appointment next Sunday: Philippe Gilbert, Davide Martinelli and Jhonatan Narvaez, who will be joined by Rémi Cavagna, Dries Devenyns, Fabio Jakobsen and Maximilian Schachmann.
"We are sitting second in the Hammer classification and have a good opportunity to fight for the overall. That's why we bring a team who can score on both events. Fabio will play an important role in the sprints if we can keep everything together, but that can be quite difficult, as we could see in Stavanger and Limburg, where the peloton got fragmented early and a breakaway went up the road", explained sports director Geert Van Bondt. "For the team time trial, we will benefit from a strong and well-balanced mix of riders, led by an experienced Gilbert, World TTT gold medalist Schachmann, Martinelli, Cavagna and a fifth rider, which we are yet to point out."
Hammer Hong Kong will be streamed live and free to watch on www.hammerseries.com and the Hammer Series social media channels.
Photo credit: ©Luc Claessen/ Getty Images
