Greg Van Avermaet will return to racing at Hammer Limburg this weekend to mark the start of his pre-Tour de France racing block.

Van Avermaet, who is CCC Team’s Hammer Captain, is looking forward to returning to the Hammer Series after making his debut in Limburg in 2018.

“It will be good to get back into racing, after a few weeks off, at Hammer Limburg. It definitely won’t be a chance to ease into things though as the racing is intense and really aggressive. As soon as the flag drops, it’s one attack after another so this will be a good chance to see how my form is, and hopefully, get a good result as a team. I think we have a good group of riders and will work well together to score as many points as possible across the three days of racing,” Van Avermaet said.

Sports Director Marco Pinotti said CCC Team will aim to continue the team’s success at the second stop on the Hammer Series calendar.

“After winning the Hammer Chase in Norway, we are motivated to line up at Hammer Limburg and hopefully, come away with another win. We have a strong team especially for the Hammer Sprint and Hammer Chase," Pinotti explained.

"We are hoping to score a lot of points in the Sprint with Jakub Mareczko, who will have the support of our four Belgians, Greg Van Avermaet, Nathan Van Hooydonck, Gijs Van Hoecke, and Guillaume Van Keirsbulck. For the Hammer Climb, Simon Geschke will replace Mareczko and I think between Simon and Greg, we can be aggressive and score some points on the tough course.” 

“As we saw in Stavanger when Łukasz Wiśniowski was in the breakaway in the Hammer Sprint, if you get in the right move you can score a lot of points and it can be difficult for the peloton to bring you back. It’s intense racing from start to finish and I think we have a strong and diverse team to tackle all three disciplines. The Hammer Chase will be another goal for us so we want to try and win the stage like last week and end the weekend on a high.”