The Hammer Series will not take place in 2020 because of the "ongoing attack" on the format by the UCI by Véron, the group of 11 WorldTour teams that ran the event.

Veron and the UCI are already fighting a legal dispute through the European Commission, and Veron has accused the world cycling governing body of trying to stifle their initiative.

The Hammer Series was created in 2017 and featured a new team-based format with a sprint day, a climbing day, and a team time trial at the end.

The first Hammer event was held in Limburg, the Netherlands, in 2017, with legs in Stavanger, Norway, and Hong Kong added in 2018; the 2019 Hong Kong event will not be held due to political protests, and the Limburg event is on the 2020 calendar due to Olympic A new leg in Colombia was announced for 2020, but was scrapped amid a dispute with the UCI, and there were plans for a women's hammer event in Stavanger.

On Friday, Veron issued a statement announcing the suspension of the series.

"The UCI, the governing body of cycling, has relentlessly attacked the Hammer series. It has used regulations to strip the series of its "series" title and prevent the development of new race formats. This discriminatory and anti-competitive behavior has not stopped the UCI's attacks on the race and the series, although Veron filed a complaint with the EU Commission in 2019," the statement said.

"Recently, the UCI prevented Hammer Stavanger from adding a women's race with prize money, broadcast, and race format fully equivalent to the men's race (while approving and moving other women's races to overlap on the same weekend). These actions made it impossible for Veron and its race organizer partners to successfully develop the Hammer Series and its races. As a result of this ongoing attack, the board of directors of Véron convened and made the decision not to host the Hammer Series in 2020"

.

The loss of the Hammer Stavanger paves the way for the revival of the Tour of Norway. The Tour des Fjords AS, the organizer of both events, confirmed that the four-day race, which was originally not scheduled for 2020, will be held from May 21-24 in the slot reserved for the Hammer event.

The Hammer Youth in Limburg will take place on June 6-7.

However, the dispute with the UCI could drag on for months. While Veron has accused the UCI of using existing and new regulations to "put the UCI's business interests ahead of its own and to the detriment of the teams," it maintains that the UCI represents the entire sport, not just the 11 men's teams.

"We are before the Commission with Veron. We do not agree with what they have said and we have evidence and proof of that and perhaps evidence of conduct that is in conflict with European law," David Lapartiento told the press in January.

"I don't know if this is the right way to resolve the issue. If I remember correctly, Veron was created to generate more revenue, even though it could take six or seven years to conclude the litigation and we will spend more revenue."[25