Having looked at the most valuable women in the 2023 Bundesliga, now we are turning to the men.
To rank in the individual classification in the Bundesliga, an athlete needed to make at least three appearances in the season. Several names, such as Lasse Nygaard Priester who won two races from his only two starts, therefore do not feature in the final Bundesliga rankings.
Following the pattern of team scoring, a win is worth 20 points, with every place thereafter dropping in value by 1 point. At the German Championships in Düsseldorf, a premium was added to the individual classification. As such, 30 points were on offer for a win with points dropping by 1.5 points for each subsequent position.
As with the women’s competition, Kraichgau counted only as start and not towards points given the team nature of the race.
1) Rico Bogen – Team Berlin – 60.5 points
Bogen raced raced four times in 2023 and put together an impressive campaign. He earned silver medals in Schliersee and Tübingen and then signed off his season with a 6th place in Hannover.
In between, he finished 16th in Düsseldorf at the German Championships. Although it was not his best finish of the year, it nonetheless added extra points to his total.
Throw in his World Ironman 70.3 Championships win and it has been a very productive year for Bogen.
2) Chris Ziehmer – HYLO Team Saar – 43 points
With Priester missing out on the final ranking, Ziehmer was the top performer from Team Saar. He raced four times, missing only the final round in Hannover.
In between 7th place finishes in Schliersee and Tübingen, he finished 11th in Düsseldorf.
Ziehmer’s consistency went a long way in keeping Team Saar in the hunt for the title. Priester may have gotten plenty of plaudits for his two wins, but Ziehmer was the glue that held the team together.
3) Jonas Schomburg – EJOT Team TV Buschhütten – 35 points
Unlike the women’s individual rankings, Buschhütten did not dominate the top-4.
Schomburg was the top Buschhütten performer and claimed 3rd place overall. In addition to his appearance in Kraichgau, he finished 9th in Düsseldorf and 4th in Hannover.
4) Gjalt Panjer – PSD Bank Tri Post Trier – 34.5 points
Panjer was a central part of the Trier team. He led the way as they surprised everyone in Kraichgau and then added a 6th place in Düsseldorf. To sign off his season, he finished 9th in Tübingen.
In Panjer’s absence in Schliersee and Hannover, Trier struggled. Their goal in 2024, then, will be to get him to race as often as possible.
5) Stefan Zachäus – EJOT Team TV Buschhütten – 32.5 points
Alongside Bogen, Zachäus was one of the two men not to have raced in Kraichgau that made it into the top-10.
His season got off to a low-key start as he finished 17th in Schliersee. A 14th place then followed in Düsseldorf. In Tübingen, though, he found his top form again and claimed the bronze medal.
Whereas all of the women’s top-5 won a medal in 2023, Zachäus was the only man to join Bogen in doing so in the men’s ranking.
6) Jonas Osterholt – PSD Bank Tri Post Trier – 30.5 points
Osterholt was another critical factor behind Trier’s brilliant season.
Like Panjer, he raced well in Kraichgau before skipping Schliersee. A 20th place in Düsseldorf was not his best day at the office but he rebounded in the final two races. A 6th place in Tübingen preceded a 7th place in Hannover. In the end, that saw him narrowly miss out on a slot in the top-5.
7) Maximilian Sperl – EJOT Team TV Buschhütten – 23 points
Sperl’s best race of the season unquestionably came in Schliersee where he finished 5th. Aside from that, he raced in Kraichgau and took 14th place in Hannover.
There is a degree to which Sperl made it into the top-10 as other others with more points did not race enough. However, showing up to races is fundamental to any team’s success in the Bundesliga. With athletes like Sperl racing on a regular basis, Buschhütten had depth and options in who would bring home the points.
It is better for teams (and for the competition) for athletes to race at least three times than for an athlete to show up once or twice and then bail. For that, then, Sperl was well worth his place in the top-10.
8) Lennart Sievers – Triathlon Team DSW Darmstadt – 22 points
Darmstadt caught a few people off-guard by finishing 4th overall. Prior to the season, we noted that they had the pieces to drastically improve on their 8th place in 2022. To do so, though, was very impressive.
Sievers was at the heart of the team’s rise. He was another four-race man, kicking off his season in Kraichgau. His best showing then came in Schliersee where his finished 9th.
To cap things off, he added a 19th place in Tübingen and a 13th place in Hannover.
In a similar way to Ziehmer for Team Saar, he was a vital cog in the Darmstadt machine.
9) Alexander Kull – Team Weimarer Ingenieure – 21 points
In addition to racing in Kraichgau, Kull finished 13th in Schliersee and then popped a 13th place in Hannover.
With his contribution, Weimer were able to break into the top-10.
Looking to 2024, the team will need to ensure that Kull races as often as possible and that they add extra support to score points around him.
10) Peter Denteneer – Absolute Teamsport KTT 01 – 11 points
Denteneer was a reliable warhorse for KTT 01; he was the only athlete from a team outside the top-10 to make the individual rankings.
With four races ticked off, he got through a lot of work for the team. Like most others, he got his season started in Kraichgau. He then skipped Schliersee before tackling the final three rounds. That saw him place 19th in Düsseldorf, 15th in Tübingen and 19th in Hannover.
Some other athletes had flashier seasons and won more medals. In the bigger picture, though, Denteneer’s efforts were hugely important to his team and he can certainly be viewed as one of the most valuable athletes of the season.
Honourable mentions
A lot of men fell foul of the three start rule when it came to the individual classification. As already mentioned, Lasse Nygaard Priester had 50 points following his Schliersee and Düsseldorf wins.
Henry Graf was in a similar boat. He finished 8th in Düsseldorf and then took a fantastic silver medal in Hannover to end his season with 38.5 points. Moreover, Simon Westermann won in Tübingen and finished 5th in Hannover, leaving him with 36 points.
Had Priester, Graf and Westermann even just appeared in Kraichgau, the top-4 would have looked very different.
Tim Hellwig also logged 28.5 points from two races. The first was in Kraichgau and his silver medal in Düsseldorf represented his only actual points.
Likewise Simon Henseleit earned 27 points in Düsseldorf for his bronze medal after racing in Kraichgau. Valentin Wernz and Johannes Vogel had the same schedule. The former won 24 points in Düsseldorf for his 5th place while the latter took 21 points for finihsing 7th.
Benedikt Bettin ended the season with 23 points for a 10th place in Schliersee and a 13th place in Düsseldorf. Thomas Guilmot was 1 points behind with 22 points after finishing 8th in Schliersee and 15th in Düsseldorf.
Finally, a lot of men like Sergio Baxter Cabrera, Mark Devay, Dominic Coy and Maxime Hueber Moosbrugger would have beaten the 11 points required to make the top-10 with only one result. Having only raced once, though, they did not bring value to their teams across the season.
You can view the individual men’s Bundesliga standings here.
