Deceuninck-QuickStep claim Hammer Series Limburg in style

The Belgian team took out the Hammer Sprint and the Hammer Climb earlier in the week and topped it off with a consummate performance in the Chase to win the Hammer Limburg event in the Netherlands.

Deceuninck-Quickstep salute a commanding win at the Hammer Series Limburg Source: Getty

Dries Devenyns, Remco Evenepoel, Fabio Jakobsen, Yves Lampaert and Michael Mørkøv were the five members of Deceuninck-Quickstep who started the day in pole position, knowing they had to defend a 30-second advantage over BORA-hansgrohe to claim the overall win.

Not only did they do that, but the quintet also set a blistering time at the end of the opening lap, further increasing their lead and making another step towards winning Hammer Limburg for the second year in a row. In full aero tuck, the five continued to navigate the time trial handsomely and midway through the race they found themselves more than a minute clear.

Sports director Tom Steels, the mastermind behind this success, didn’t hide his joy at the end of Sunday’s race, which marked the team’s 34th victory since the start of the season:

“Today we just had to defend the job," said Steels. "From the beginning we took our gap to one minute, and despite Fabio struggling a bit, the boys were really strong and rode smoothly as a team.

"We did really good all weekend and were consistent from day one. We always ride aggressively, we kept to the script also here in Limburg, and the guys were also tactically perfect, which was one of the things that made the difference.”