Team Sky hold off Team Sunweb to win the first Hammer Series title

Team Sky are the inaugural winners of the Hammer Series after a thrilling conclusion to the three-day event in Limburg.

The competition finished on Sunday with a five-rider team time-trial pursuit, Team Sky having earned a 32-second advantage over Team Sunweb after Friday's Climb and Saturday's Sprint contests.

That lead was confirmed by race organisers after the sprint race, which saw Sunweb's Ramon Sinkeldam fail to finish because of a crash, negating the points he had gained earlier on.

But Sunweb started eating into their deficit from the gun, and they were able to catch Team Sky after Jon Dibben was dropped, leaving them with only the four riders they needed to get to the finish.

With Sunweb still at full-strength they claimed a small advantage, but they would also drop to a team of four inside the final 2km, giving Team Sky the chance to close back in and reclaim the lead.

Team Sky's Elia Viviani, Owain Doull and Danny van Poppel made it round the final bend in three of the first four places but they needed Tao Geoghegan Hart to ensure that he finished ahead of at least one Sunweb rival.

And the youngster managed just that, coming home fifth in the sprint to the line to secure victory for Team Sky by a single second.

Geoghegan Hart had also scored the majority of Team Sky's points in the Climb event, while Viviani helped the team stay competitive in the Sprint.