Düsseldorf played host to the third round of the Bundesliga and the German Championships this weekend. Multiple WTCS medallists turned out to start, including Tim Hellwig, Lasse Lührs and Lena Meißner, although Laura Lindemann was a late withdrawal.
The men raced on the Saturday while the women raced on Sunday and both races came down to tense final finishes.
Men’s race
Fresh off a massive performance at WTCS Montreal, Tim Hellwig led out the swim. His swim had fired in Canada and he used it to great effect in Düsseldorf.
Fabian Kraft was the only man able to go with Hellwig, however he had a 10 second penalty to serve in T1. Hellwig’s fellow Hylo Team Saar member, Valentin Wernz, followed 9 seconds behind. No on else, though, could quite get close to the leader.
As a result, Hellwig jumped away on the bike and built upon his early advantage.
The athletes had to contend with a long run up a series of stairs from the shallow water to make their way to T1. Whereas Hellwig was able to breeze away in peace, the rest of the field barged their way up the stairs like shoppers racing to a Black Friday sale. Jonas Schomburg was among those to make it up the stairs first. Rather than a cut-price television, his prize was leading the chase of Hellwig.
Through the narrow, technical sections Hellwig held the upper hand. Over the course of the first lap, though, the greater numbers of the chase told and he was eventually caught. A lead group of sixteen therefore came together.
With Wernz and Hellwig at the front, Team Saar had four men in the front pack. However, their arch-rivals Buschhütten also put four men in the lead group with Schomburg powering ahead.
Several other contenders safely made the front pack, including Lührs. After his silver medal in Schliersee, Rico Bogen made it, while Simon Henseleit was in the thick of the action at the front.
A crash in the chase pack on the bridge early on wiped out any hopes of catching the leaders. Several of the men took nasty falls. Although the leaders could be confident of keeping away, news came through that Hellwig had received a penalty for improper placement of his equipment in T1. Given how much time he had, it was a careless error to say the least.
When the leaders arrived in T2, then, they arrived with a lead of over 30 seconds. Hellwig, Lührs and Priester charged clear but the penalty changed the complexion of the race.
Henseleit headed up the chase and tried to regain contact with the leaders. Once Hellwig stopped to serve his 10 seconds in the penalty box, Priester strode clear. His teammate set after him but by the end of the first lap the gap was 13 seconds.
As much as Hellwig pushed, he simply could not catch Priester. Instead, his teammate defended his lead and at no point did it dip back under 10 seconds. Irritating as the penalty may have been for Hellwig, it did not prove too costly. Seeing how Priester ran, there may not have been a lot Hellwig could have done anyway.
As Priester and Hellwig made it a Team Saar 1-2, Henseleit caught and passed Lührs to seal a fantastic bronze medal. In his final year as an U23 athlete, Henseleit is enjoying a great season and may be one of the coming forces in the German men’s squad.
Lührs settled for 4th while Wernz was next home in 5th.
With three men in the top-5 and Chris Ziehmer in 11th, it was a comfortable win for Team Saar. Buschhütten took 2nd as their gap at the top of the Bundesliga slimmed to 1 point. A Henseleit-led Neckarsulm took an impressive 3rd place.
Women’s race
Lena Meißner has recently struggled with a knee injury that limited her running. One thing that evidently has not been affected, though, is her swimming.
Meißner was terrific in the water. With a long, smooth stroke she pulled away from the field early on. One aspect that stood out from her technique was how steady and consistent her kick was. In contrast to Meißner, many of her rivals either allowed their feet to drag or implemented a broken kicking pattern.
As she exited the water, Meißner slipped and fell back, allowing Anabel Knoll to jump ahead and lead the way into T1. Close behind, a group containing Lisa Tertsch, Anika Koch and Marlene Gomez-Göggel followed.
Although Knoll led into T1, an expert transition by the Buschhütten trio of Meißner, Tertsch and Koch saw them jump clear. Knoll tried to chase with her Witten teammate, Anne Holm. Yet the red-clad trio surged on.
The duo of Gomez-Göggel and Tanja Neubert gradually caught Knoll and Holm. Not long after, that quartet was joined by Selina Klamt, Nina Eim and Caroline Pohle. At the end of the first bike lap, the front three had a 13 second gap to the seven-woman chase. Eventually, though, they were caught.
Such was the power of the leading ten women, there was no chance that anyone else would catch them on the bike.
In T2, Eim pulled up and did not run. After a recent foot issue, she opted to keep her powder dry for the rest of the summer. Once Pohle and Holm were dropped early on, the lead group was down to seven.
Klamt took on the pace-setting duties and Knoll fell behind. Soon after, Meißner also dropped away. As Tertsch and Gomez-Göggel injected additional pace on the final run lap, Koch and Neubert lost contact with the leaders.
As the reigning European silver medallist, a multiple World Cup winner and the only WTCS medallist of the lead trio, Tertsch seemed firmly in control of the race. In the final kilometre, she began to ratchet up the pace and test her rivals. It was Klamt, though, that stood up to Tertsch. She threw down a surge of her own and suddenly Gomez-Göggel began to waver.
Determined not to lose, Tertsch hit back but Klamt would not budge. Tertsch thrust her arms harder to generate more speed. She attacked again and again yet Klamt held resolute. The final few hundred metres raced by as Tertsch absolutely pummelled her rival. A pained grimace spread across Klamt’s face under the brutal onslaught but she remained standing.
At the last, though, Terstch had one gear more, threw one punch too many for Klamt, and broke ahead. She crossed the line to claim the German title to confirm her status as Germany’s current leading lady.
Only 3 seconds later, Klamt crossed in 2nd and fell to the groud, utterly spent from the final salvo.
Gomez-Göggel crossed soon after to seal 3rd place while Koch and then Neubert rounded out the top-5. For the first time this season, Buschhütten did not sweep the podium; with three women in the top-5, they nonetheless claimed a comfortable overall win.
Witten had a wonderful day on their way to 2nd overall while Potsdam settled for 3rd.
You can view the men’s results here and the women’s results here.
