Category: WTCS

Beaugrand To Back Up Hamburg Win In Sunderland

Benjamin Eastman

A French sweep of the women’s podium could well be on the cards at WTCS Sunderland. After a flawless display at WTCS Hamburg, Cassandre Beaugrand will be racing again. Wearing number 1, she will be favoured to make it two wins from two races. Up against her will be Leonie Periault and Emma Lombardi, both of whom have won a silver medal at a WTCS race this season. They three French athletes are not just the only athletes starting with WTCS medals in 2023; they also comprise three-quarters of the…

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Could Vilaca Trump Wilde At WTCS Sunderland?

Benjamin Eastman

In many regards, 2023 has been a breakthrough year for Vasco Vilaca. For years, his talent has been clear, not least since he earned a stunning silver medal at the 2020 single day world championships. Over the winter, though, he seemed to find a new level and has been rewarded with three WTCS medals this season. His form has placed him at the top of the WTCS standings and earmarks him as the primary challenger to Hayden Wilde at WTCS Sunderland this weekend. Wilde, for that matter, sits right behind…

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Potter Takes Overall WTCS Lead While Vilaca Holds On

Benjamin Eastman

The fifth round of the 2023 WTCS saw several athletes make their moves towards the top of the Series standings. With only WTCS Sunderland and the Paris Olympic Test Event to go before the Final in Pontevedra, opportunities are running out to make a play for the world title. In the women’s rankings, Beth Potter moved to the top of the leaderboard after making a gain of 4 places. With 2986 points to her name, Potter holds a lead of 150 points over Taylor Spivey. Whereas Potter has two wins,…

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Who Had The Best Splits At WTCS Hamburg 2023?

Benjamin Eastman

With qualifiers, heats and multiple rounds in the final, WTCS Hamburg had a smorgasbord of splits to survey. Across two days of racing, the athletes were often separated by mere seconds. An improvement of 1 or 2 seconds, then, had the potential to cause major ramifications, whether through consigning an athlete to the repechages, putting them into the final or even determining a medal. Moreover, the tactical nature of the competition meant that when an athlete deployed their best split was often as important as how fast it was. As…

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All the Debuts and Personal Bests From WTCS Hamburg 2023

Benjamin Eastman

Debuts Selina Klamt logged the best performance of the female debutants in Hamburg. She was the only woman making her first start to earn a spot in the final after qualifying through the repechage. In the final, she enjoyed a good swim and made it to the front pack of nineteen women. At that stage, she seemed to be in a perfect position to secure a place in the second round. However, the intensity of the race ultimately told and she slipped back into the chase group. In the end,…

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What Were The Big Talking Points From WTCS Hamburg 2023?

Benjamin Eastman

With so many different races taking place at WTCS Hamburg, there were plenty of talking points to take away from the event. Among the standouts were Hayden Wilde’s magnificent victory in which he beat Alex Yee in the WTCS for the first time. In a display in which he rolled tactical nous, blistering speed and an inordinate amount of grit into one, there is not a lot more to say about Wilde’s performance beyond that it was pretty special. In the women’s event, Beaugrand strolled to her third WTCS win…

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Cassandre Beaugrand Eases To Victory At WTCS Hamburg

Benjamin Eastman

WTCS victories are supposed to look a little more difficult than that. From the moment she dove into the Binnenalster in the qualifier to the second she crossed the line to seal her triumph in the final, Cassandre Beaugrand hardly looked out of breath. The three rounds of the final ultimately amounted to little more than a procession as the field struggled to find an answer to the French star. To open the first round, Laura Lindemann shot out into a lead in the swim. Not only had the German star…

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Wilde Gets Monkey Off His Back With Hamburg Win

Benjamin Eastman

Across two days of racing, the temptation was to look for the subtle clues into an athlete’s condition. Who looked good? Who did not? Such was the shadow-boxing throughout the competition, the answers were not fully apparent. In the last round of the men’s final, Hayden Wilde reached for the megaphone on the streets of Hamburg and left no question whatsoever about his capabilities. Thirty men lined up to contest the first of the three rounds. Racing over the same Super Sprint course as the qualifiers and repechage, the last…

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What Went Down At The 2023 WTCS Hamburg Repechages

Benjamin Eastman

Those not fortunate enough to earn automatic qualification to the finals of WTCS Hamburg returned to the course on Friday evening for the repechages. While the top-10 finishers from each qualifier were tucked away, recovering in their hotel room, they remaining athletes lined up on the pontoon. Both the route and the start lists were the same as the morning. A Super Sprint course awaited (300m swim, 7.5km bike, 1.75km run) while those from Qualifier 1 raced Repechage 1 and so forth. After a couple of big names, including Summer…

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Who’s Hot and Who’s Not After the WTCS Hamburg Heats

Benjamin Eastman

With the heats concluded at WTCS Hamburg, attention will now turn to the repechages and then the finals. Ahead of the next stages, it is time to cast an eye over the qualifiers and assess which athletes looked good and which ones flew under the radar. In some cases, cases can be made for athletes looking in a position to win the entire event. In other cases, there are some athletes that looked like they simply used the heats as a warm up and will show their true hand in…

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Potter and Beaugrand Lead Women’s WTCS Hamburg Heats

Benjamin Eastman

Following the men’s qualifiers at WTCS Hamburg, it was the turn of the women. The same Super Sprint course consisting of a 300m swim, 7.5km bike and 1.75km run awaited and, while the pre-race favourites were for the most part comfortable in sealing their passage to the final, there were a couple of big names that slipped into the repechage. Qualifier 1 Vittoria Lopes was superlative in the water as she led the way in a time of 3:55. In her last WTCS outing, she led the swim in Montreal…

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Men’s Favourites Make It Safely Through Hamburg Qualifiers

Benjamin Eastman

The rude awakening of the alarm had barely been shaken off by the time to the first men’s qualifier lined the pontoon at WTCS Hamburg. Racing at an unorthodox 8am, a bracing dip in the Binnenalster promised to wake everyone up. With the prospect of a royal rumble under the bridge, it was best to be alert. All that mattered, though, was securing a place in the top-10. That would earn automatic qualification into Saturday’s final and avoid having to return later in the day for a repechage. With a…

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No Fighting: The Lessons Of The WTCS Hamburg Course

Benjamin Eastman

As noted in the cheat sheets for WTCS Hamburg, the racing will take place over a Super Sprint distance as opposed to the more traditional Sprint course. On what was already a tight route on narrow streets, there will be several precarious spots. The biggest talking point is the swim. Hamburg is notorious for what happens under the bridge during the first discipline. Under the cover of darkness, there is plenty of contact, some of it unintentional, some of it not. With the athletes due to spend around a quarter…

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The Start List Cheat Sheets For WTCS Hamburg 2023

Benjamin Eastman

WTCS Hamburg presents a unique challenge in 2023. Instead of the usual Sprint distance fare, the event will be contested over a multi-round Super Sprint format. On Friday, there will be two men’s qualifiers and two women’s qualifiers which will run over the Super Sprint distance. The ten best finishers in each qualifier will make it to the final on Saturday. Those that do not qualify will then compete in a repechage (also a Super Sprint) on Friday evening. The ten best finishers in the repechage will then be added…

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Yee, Coldwell and Knibb Out of WTCS Sunderland

Benjamin Eastman

A series of wholesale changes have taken place amid the start lists for WTCS Sunderland. After illuminating the recent WTCS Montreal with a breakaway on the bike alongside her fellow American Summer Rappaport, Taylor Knibb will not be racing in the UK. In both of her appearances in the Series this year (Yokohama and Montreal), Knibb has been a key part of the breakaway. Her absence therefore removes one of the biggest driving forces at the front of the race. In Knibb’s place, Gwen Jorgensen has been substituted into the…

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