The Hammer Series, the professional road cycling series launched last year by Velon, the umbrella group of top cycling teams, is to be streamed live on social media across the world, with all three events in this year’s series being available on Facebook, Twitter and DailyMotion.

Velon said: “This means that unlike other pro-cycling races, fans anywhere in the world will be able to watch the Hammer Series live, on any device and without being charged for access.”

This year’s series begins in Stavanger, Norway on 25 to 27 May, before returning to Limburg in The Netherlands, venue for last year’s inaugural event, on 1 to 3 June and finishing in Hong Kong on 14 October 14.

Velon said: “Hammer Series has been designed for fans to see the best teams in the world race up close, and unlike traditional stage-based races, the action is provided in an innovative team-versus-team format. Instead of individual riders aiming to make the podium, Hammer Series pits squads of five riders against each other over extremely testing courses to determine the best team. Last year, over three million cycling fans watched the racing online, including 1.4 million on Facebook in the inaugural event live from Limburg.”

Graham Bartlett, Velon’s chief executive, said: “In everything we do, we want to bring more of the race excitement to the fans. For them to get more of the action. We're delighted to announce all of the races for the series will be seen live everywhere because Hammer is about the fans and delivering the very best action to them is our goal.”

Mark Buttermann, director of summer sports at Infront, the international sports marketing agency that is Velon’s partner in the venture, said: “After a very successful digital-all approach for the inaugural race in 2017; being able to live stream all three races of the Hammer Series in 2018 across the leading social platforms represents a major milestone for us and perfectly reflects the digital essence of Infront's and Velon's project. This will enable Hammer Series to engage with even more fans and provide them with live thrilling content and data for free on any device, anywhere and at any time.”

In an exclusive interview with Sportcal Insight, Bartlett said: “What we’ve created with Hammer is made for the fan. Take the best action and ideas, sprinting, climbing, chasing, and make it team versus team. Focus on an aspect no one else is looking at: who is the best team? First over the line wins. It’s centred around the fan. Do the finish in the same place as the start; see teams passing 10 or 11 times. You can build a fan hub, an entertainment centre, something for people to be part of. We did the proof of concept in Limburg [last year] and got 3.2 million live cumulative views. It was hugely successful in terms of impact.”

To read the interview, click here.

Sportcal