The point of no return has arrived in the men’s Bundesliga.
If Hylo Team Saar win the fourth round in Tübingen, they will drew level with the leaders at the top of the standings and move to one step away from completing a memorable comeback.
EJOT Team TV Buschhütten, the current leaders, will enter the penultimate round in the knowledge that, if they beat Team Saar, the overall win will be as good as theirs.
Of course, the final round in Hannover will still need to be contested in September. However Tübingen will determine whether the finale will be an almighty showdown between the two best teams in Germany or a dead rubber.
A Sprint distance race awaits, although the courses are a little irregular. The athletes will have the standard 750m lake swim. A bike course of 18.8km will follow with a 5.4km run to finish.
In one of the big changes from the previous rounds, each men’s team will only start with four athletes, copying the women’s field. As such, only the three highest finishers will count towards a team’s score.
Buschhütten have been forced to ring changes to their line-up.
Although Stefan Zachäus and Til Kramp return, Jonas Schomburg is unavailable. The likes of Richard Murray, Henri Schoeman and Vetle Bergsvik Thorn are also not due to start. In their place, Simon Westermann and Thomas Bishop complete the Buschhütten quartet.
Team Saar will fancy their chances of taking the win they need. The most obvious asset they have is Lasse Nygaard Priester. The German champion will look to claim a third win on the bounce in the Bundesliga and it is hard to see anyone stopping him.
Chris Ziehmer has been a reliable scorer all season for Team Saar and his team will be looking for another strong performance from him. The key battle, though, may come down to the third men. Team Saar will use Emil Holm and Dominic Coy and hope that the top finisher of the pair can beat Westermann and Bishop.
While much of the focus will go to the 1 point gap at the top of the table, several other teams will be looking to make moves in the men’s standings.
Sportunion Neckarsulm, in 3rd place, have consolidated a 3 point gap over Team Berlin in 4th. They have Simon Henseleit racing again on the back of his bronze medal from the German Championships and personal best WTCS finish in Hamburg. Henseleit is one of the form men in the field and should be among the medallists if things go right. If he has a very good day, he could even trouble Priester for the win.
Silas Schmidt will be on hand to offer some valuable support, as will Amaury Dietrich, Arnaud Des Boscs. Neckarsulm have a balanced team in Tübingen and they should be able to hold on to 3rd overall.
PSD Bank Tri Post Trier have made no changes to their line up from the previous round.
After taking an impressive 6th place in Düsseldorf, Gjalt Panjer races again. With Cedric Osterholt, Jonas Osterholt and Monty Dixon also due to start, Trier have the capacity to put three men inside the top-20. That would go a long way in helping them move up from their current overall position of 6th.
Bradley Course, the winner of the Oceania Championships over the Olympic distance, will be making his first start of this year’s Bundesliga season for Absolute Teamsport KTT 01. Having proven himself at the Senior level – earlier in July he won a silver medal at the European Cup in Holten – he should have few issues breaking into the top-10 at the race.
He also did not quite have the race he had hoped for at the World Junior Championships in Hamburg and slipped to 14th place. A big response can be expected from the young Australian and he could even put himself in the mix for a podium.
KTT 01 will also be represented by Peter Denteneer, Pep Delvaux and Karl Diedrich.
Valdemar Solok, the new Danish champion, has been drafted in for WEICON Tri Finish Münster. Along with Sébastien Pascal, he forms one half of a double punch that could see Münster rise through the standings.
Ben Cumberland of Britain is an interesting addition to Triathlon Team DSW Darmstadt’s roster. He is in his first year out of the Junior ranks and has shown plenty of promise in his nascent triathlon career.
Likewise, Niels van Lanen has been added to the Triathlon Potsdam line-up.
On the note of Potsdam, Laura Lindemann is slated to make her first Bundesliga start of the season for the team. The bronze medallist from WTCS Hamburg adds some much-needed firepower to the team after a strange season so far.
Célia Merle offers a fairly reliable top-10 option to the outfit while Sophia Stückrad and Leann Naima Dietzel will also be racing for Potsdam.
At the top of the table, though, Buschhütten are running away with the women’s series. They have won all three races this season and saw off the challenge of Witten at the previous round in Düsseldorf.
Lisa Tertsch will be racing again after wins in Schliersee and Düsseldorf. Like Priester in the men’s field, there is a very good chance that she makes it three wins in a row.
Solveig Løvseth, Natalie Van Coevorden and Therese Feuersinger then complete a formidable team. With the class they have in their squad, another Buschhütten looks to be on the cards.
On the note of Witten, they will be without their best performer from this season as Marlene Gomez-Göggel is absent. Anabel Knoll and Anne Holm are due to start, however Holm is now a last-minute doubt.
Having pushed Buschhütten in Düsseldorf, it seems unlikely that Witten will be able to do the same in Tübingen
Team Berlin will look to consolidate their 2nd place overall in the standings and will be boosted by the return of Céline Kaiser. Mirjam Huber, Lara Thekla Ungewickell and Onel Venter will also race in Tübingen and the battle between Potsdam and Berlin should be a tight affair.
Meanwhile, Absolute Teamsport KTT 01 are on the rise and now sit 1 point behind SSF Bonn Triathlon Team in the race for 3rd place. Finja Herrmann, Madlen Kappeler, Josephine Seerig and Carolin Meyer will be looking to combine for KTT 01 and secure that coveted place on the podium.
TSV Amicitia Viernheim have a young team but could be one of the surprises of the weekend. Tabea Huys, the Austrian Junior, should be towards the front in the swim and bike. Livia Wespe, Helen Scheffold and Nadine Klive could all chip in with some high finishes too.
Aniek Mars, a European Junior Cup medallist, adds to the Dutch contingent in Dr. Loges Triathlon Team Lüneburg. She will join the team’s star performer, Robin Dreyling, and could contribute some important points.
On the note of important points, Sparda-Bank Team Hagen will welcome the return of Margareta Bicanova and Joanna Wozniak. The former had the team’s best result of the season with a top-5 in Schliersee. If she can get anywhere near that result, Hagen may be able to charge towards a place in the overall top-10.
