Infront Sports & Media is launching a unique new series of professional cycling races – the Hammer Series in partnership with Velon, the business venture that is aimed at bringing the sport of cycling closer to the fans. Last year, Velon, the company behind eleven UCI World Tour Teams, entered into a 10-year partnership with Infront Sports & Media, the leading international sports marketing company integrated with IRONMAN as part of Wanda Sports.
The partnership between Infront and Velon gives Velon access to the ‘market leading technology, media production and sports marketing expertise of Infront, including its subsidiaries Host Broadcast Services (HBS) and Omnigon’. The objective is to enable Velon to ‘build a long-term and sustainable economic model for the sport, its teams and riders.’
In the new Hammer Series, top pro cycling teams compete in UCI sanctioned spectator-friendly race series in order to crown the best team in the world. The new series will kick-off in the Netherlands in June, with Infront handling both the media and sponsorship sales on an international basis for the entire series. The Hammer Series will have its world premiere in Limburg, the Netherlands, from 1-4 June 2017, with further events announced over the coming months. Spanning three race days, teams will compete in the Hammer Sprint, Hammer Climb and conclude with the Hammer Chase races with the goal of being crowned the best team in the world.
The series is positioned as a unique new cycling showcase that will feature an innovative race format, which is designed to deliver cycling action that is fast, exciting, accessible and easy to follow. Encouraging engagement with the local community at each race destination will be an important objective of the events, with various fan participation activities that bring people inside the sport. The Hammer Series race schedule will be developed to fit carefully within the UCI race calendar and starts with the showcase race in early June in the Netherlands, the Hammer Sportzone Limburg. The next Hammer Series races – and their associated franchised partners – are to be announced over the coming months.
Stephan Herth, Executive Director Summer Sports at Infront said “Cycling is a key sport in Infront’s long-term strategy as well as an important pillar of the wider Wanda Sports business. The new race series guarantees comprehensive cycling action, which is appealing, modern and accessible for fans. This will ultimately lead to re-establish the strength of cycling and position it as an appealing product for media, sponsors and fans.”
‘State-of-the-art race coverage’
In line with the ambitions of Velon to grow the fan base of cycling and bring fans closer to the action, Velon Interactive live rider data will be made available to fans through the Velon website, app and social channels. Velon’s on-bike cameras will feature ‘unmissable action footage for fans to get into the heart of the races as well as additional cameras to capture unique behind-the-scenes access to the series and the teams’.
Graham Bartlett, CEO of Velon said “There are many great races in cycling. The teams felt there was room for a new emphasis, something that distilled the core disciplines of the sport and spoke to its powerful team ethic. One of the riders who worked on the concept called it ‘impact racing’, I think that sums it up.”
Velon is a collective of pro cycling teams working towards engaging more fans into the sport of cycling by developing partnerships to make the riders and races both accessible and more exciting. Velon has created a number of platforms to bring fans to the heart of the action and, with the help of the teams, has ‘opened a door into their world’ – be it behind the scenes or in the middle of a sprint finish – so that fans have never been closer.
Velon adds that it actively works with race organisers to create an open and fair system to give the sport room to grow… ‘Velon – a new experience, from the teams to the fans, going inside WorldTour cycling with real-time stats, gripping GoPro videos and up close rider access.’
