In 2017, Velon will launch the International Team Challenge (ITC) in partnership with Infront Sports & Media. It will be new race format which will see its first edition being held from June 2 to 4 in Limburg with a circuit including the Cauberg. There is also talk of rounds taking place in Switzerland and South Africa (August and October) which should, according to the press release, be Hors Category events.

While the official press release reports that there will be sprints, climbs and team time trials spread over three days, Wielerflits has looked more closely at this new race format. 

According to the website, the first day of competition will consist of a kind of points race with five riders per team and ten laps on a short circuits where points are awarded to the first ten riders at each passage on the line. A neutral zone will allow riders to start on the same line at the beginning of each lap. 

The second day will be devoted to puncheurs and climbers for an elimination race. Again, there will be ten laps (ten climbs to tackle) and after each of them, a number of riders will be eliminated. A regrouping will be made on the descent and eighty riders will be present for the final lap where the points will be awarded, with bonuses for the top three. 

On the last day, there will be a team time trial in which rules are still rather vague. The winner of the competition will be the one with the most points at the end of three days of competition.

Event organizers have deliberately not revealed the details of the rules and will do so in January. It is possible that by that time, changes will be made for the different race formats.  

With Velon one of the organizers, the WorldTour teams that are part of the group, can be expected to attend.