The BLUFFER'S GUIDE

Ahead of the first Hammer Series race in early June, the Cannondale- Drapac sport director leads us through the rules and explains what tactical conundrums the novel - and technical - format throws up

I'mprobably going to have to whisper this, but it needs saying: road racing can be a little dull. Before you get upset, let me just qualify my comment. I am a test match man at heart, Twenty20 cricket is cheap thrills in bad uniforms to me, and as a DS I see in as close detail as anyone how a race develops through the course of hours or days to give a winner.

Yet I can still get worn out from the predictability of road racing. All the DSs see what I see, and we all know what the others will do because we understand the resources each of us has. We know who is capable of what, and nine times out of ten most directors (and riders) will still wait for that to happen because to try anything else is futile.

People cry out for race organisers to be more imaginative with race routes, and that is an answer in some cases, but not all. Making things more selective doesn’t always make things interesting, it just suits a different type of rider and everyone else either doesn’t turn up or at least doesn’t turn up to win.

So when Velon announced their new Hammer Series for 2017, I was genuinely interested to see how they would re-imagine the sport. Velon looked not simply at changing race routes, but starting from scratch. I will be directing the Cannondale team at the first event in June: getting my head around the new format has been high on my list of priorities this year.

There are two concepts that go against the traditional format of a race. Firstly the winner will be a team. Think how teams are generally structured with one or two riders being the leaders and everyone sacrificing themselves - teams are always important but a lot of riders are used to not having to finish things off. In this case, every man counts.

Secondly, the idea that the break doesn’t have to reach the line to be decisive. Races often take the same shape, with riders allowing a publicity move to go before closing in the final few kilometres. Here that simply can’t happen: breaks will be able to sweep up the points on stages one and two, so will have an advantage going in to the final day.

On stages one and two, getting in the break and being in the break becomes a much more complicated and important task. In fact this race can be more about the break than the finish, which flips traditional ideas about what constitutes a bike race on their head. It’s active and aggressive racing that takes away the dead spots of a traditional 200km race.