Between the semi-finals and the finals of the Tiszaujvaros World Cup, there will be plenty of changes to the course. The bike will be different; it will consist of eight 2.5km laps in the final instead of two 10km laps. Likewise, the run will be held over four laps instead of three.
However, the swim will remain the same.
That consistency is significant. If there is one lesson to take from the semi-finals, it is that the swim will be hugely important in the final.
Tiszaujvaros is unlike practically any other race. The swim essentially takes place in a pond and the athletes have three extremely tight laps of 250m to handle. Speed off the start is therefore considerably more important in Tiszaujvaros than anywhere else. Without it, an athlete risks being swamped around the multiple buoys. The banks also pen the athletes in as they round the pond; if they get stuck in a brawl, there is nowhere to go.
Experience, comfort in open water, and a willingness to throw an elbow therefore are valuable assets to possess in Tiszaujvaros. The idyll is to be at the front of the race in the clean water. Failing that, those with the greater nous and awareness of their surroundings will benefit the most.
In all of the semi-finals, the race winner came from the small breakaway that formed out of T1. Even when the breakaway was caught, the original front pack still had the upper hand having not had to fight so much or push the bike quite as hard.
Below you will be able to see how each of the semi-finals unfolded.
The red lines reflect the last automatic qualifier in each semi-final. For the women’s events, 14th was the cut-off. In the men’s, 9th place was the position that mattered.
Zsanett Bragmayer was at the front for practically the entirety of the semi-final on her way to winning the first heat.
Even though the chase possessed the likes of Charlotte McShane, Solveig Løvseth and Dominika Jamnicky, they could not make a dent in the advantage of the lead pack. Once the gap had formed out of T1, that was basically game over.
Of course, the final will focus the minds of the chase and they will know that they cannot allow such a gap to form. At an event like Tiszaujvaros, though, the swim may prove to be more significant than the bike.
Michaela Sterbova held on for 14th, finishing 1 second behind Vicky Van Der Merwe.
You can see how Gina Sereno launched comeback on the run to take 14th. Having been marooned in the third pack, she pieced together a brilliant run to save herself.
The big talking point of the second women’s semi-final, though, was Bianca Seregni’s swim. She was simply in a different class to the rest of the field. By way of comparison, she would have been the ninth fastest man in semi-final 1, eighth fastest in semi-final 2 and the seventh fastest man in semi-final 3. Only a handful of men actually managed to out-swim her by more than 5 seconds.
In the final, look for Sergeni to make a similar bold move early in the swim.
Whoever can go with her, or at least make the jump to her on the bike, will be in a great position to win the race. Due to a lack of running caused by injury, it is not yet clear if Seregni will be able to run for the win. She seemed to fare well on foot in the semi-final so she could hold up.
Whatever happens afterwards, chances are she will blow the field to smithereens in the water.
Nicola Azzano got dropped from the lead pack on the bike but managed to hold on for 9th.
With Csongor Lehmann at the helm of the lead group, they buried the chasers. Semi-final 1 was therefore the only heat in which someone from the chase failed to qualify for the final.
Lehmann led out the swim and should be towards the front heading into T1 in the final. Given how he rode in the semi-final, he will likely be a major force in pushing for a breakaway.
It was a tighter affair in semi-final 2 as two packs merged on the bike. From the second pack, Panagiotis Bitados was able to creep into 9th place and automatically qualify for the final.
Alessio Crociani was superb in the swim, recording the fastest of the day, and will be another to push the pace in the final. Although Bence Bicsák struggled to keep up with the Italian, he was the last of the seven men able to make the front group on the bike. That group eventually swelled to thirteen.
Márk Dévay led the swim in semi-final 3. A combination of Lehmann, Crociani and Dévay has “breakaway” written all over it in big, bold capital letters. If those three get away, and maybe drag one or two supporters with them, there is a great chance that the chase will not see them again.
In the final, only thirty men will start. As such, a small front pack will have considerably more relative power against the chase than would normally be the case. At most, they will have to ride against twenty or so men and that presumes that the chase emerge intact and ready to work together.
The example of the semi-finals showed that once the leaders gain more than 20 seconds, they hold the cards.
The last automatic qualifier was Tyler Smith who had to hold off a fast-finishing Hugo Milner to take 9th. The Brit still made the final as one of the fastest losers.
