Home expectation brings a different kind of pressure.
Where Hayden Wilde experienced it when he raced in his homeland at the New Plymouth World Cup back in March, this time it fell to Csongor Lehmann as he led a redoubtable Hungarian team in Tiszaujvaros.
Following consecutive European Cup wins in his home town, Lehmann had planted his flag early in the semi-finals to claim the number 1 seed for the final. All he had to do was repeat. With a stacked Hungarian team ready to stop him, not to mention a litany of international threats across the World Cup field, Lehmann would not have it his own way.
Rather than any of the favoured Hungarian men, it was Max Stapley of Britain that nipped into an early lead in the swim. A subsequent swim penalty for an early start, though, hinted that has position was not entirely earned through speed. Having been caught in a tussle around the buoys on the first lap, Márk Dévay was forced to swim through several bodies to close in on Stapley. By the third of the three laps, he had surged through and snatched the lead. Normal service was therefore upheld as Dévay led the way into T1.
An eight man front group coalesced early during the bike. Alongside Márk Dévay, three Hungarian men made the front pack. Among them was Lehmann while Gergő Dobi and Gergely Kiss were also there. Two Spanish men, Alberto Gonzalez Garcia and Sergio Baxter Cabrera, comprised the pack, as did Alessio Crociani and Alois Knabl.
Baxter, the only non-Hungarian winner from the semi-finals, dropped the hammer on the second lap. Kiss, however, marked the move. Two further men managed to jump into the front pack to lift its number to ten. Tjebbe Kaindl was one while Gábor Faldum ensured that the 50% Hungarian presence at the front was maintained.
Eventually, though, the front pack was caught by the chase to create a lead group of twenty. Happily enough for the leaders, several of the dangerous runners were stranded down the road. The likes of Maxime Hueber Moosbrugger, Bence Bicsák and David Cantero del Campo were 39 seconds down on the front group and struggled to make any headway.
The gap stabilised for the rest of the bike as the leaders began to look ahead to the run.
Following swift transitions, Lehmann and Faldum struck ahead early in the run. Within the opening kilometre, Lehmann then asserted himself as he pulled away from his compatriot. With the early lead, the path to victory had opened up.
Baxter, though, had other ideas. Having moved into third on the road, the Spaniard passed Faldum. He then breezed alongside Lehmann and the pair began to trade the lead. In 2022, both Baxter and Lehmann won World Cup races for the first time, the former in Pontevedra and the latter in Karlovy Vary. On both occasions, the win had come from a late surge in the run. Somehow, one of the two had to summon a similar tactical burst.
Lehmann looked fresh but on the penultimate lap Baxter nudged ahead to test his rival. Having already denied Hungary its clean sweep in the semi-finals, he scented the chance to play spoiler again. However Lehmann responded and drew back alongside.
As the lead pair duelled, their pace rose and fell. Sensing an opportunity, Faldum moved away from Gonzalez and tried to close the 7 second gap.
It was midway through the last lap that the decisive moment came.
In a sudden burst, Lehmann kicked away. For a moment Baxter seemed to be able to respond. However, like a rope slipping through his hands, he could not quite grasp his rival.
The home-town favourite was therefore able to surge away and make the most of the final stretch to the finish line. With friends and family waiting to cheer him on, his triumph was deeply personal and shared with those closest to him.
A short 8 seconds later, Baxter finished to claim the silver medal. After an injury-disrupted start to his season, he appears to be in full flow once more. As the summer continues to unfold, he will be a hard man to stop.
Meanwhile, at the last, Faldum faltered. As much as the Hungarian support cheered him on, he had no answer as Gonzalez zoomed past to seal the bronze medal.
With Rostisvlav Pevtsov taking 5th place, the two oldest men in the field were only narrowly denied a place on the podium.
As the rest of the field trickled over the line, the attention of the crowd had turned to their local champion. If it even needed confirmation, Tiszaujvaros is Csongor Lehmann’s turf.
You can view the full results here.
