The second round of the Bundesliga took place in Schliersee at the weekend and what had already looked like a safe win for Buschhütten in the women’s race was made even easier before the starting horn even sounded.
Last season’s women’s champions, Potsdam, were unable to field a team and withdrew at the last minute. Jule Behrens had originally been slated to start and was among a group of athletes supposed to tackle the European Cup in Wels on the Saturday and then Schliersee on the Sunday.
With a silver medal in her pocket from Wels, Behrens could have been a threat at the Bundesliga race. As it was, though, Potsdam did not start, leaving the question of how Behrens would have fared moot.
A novel course awaited nevertheless awaited the athletes. First up was a 750m swim in the lake at Schliersee. After a long run to T1, they would then hop onto their bikes to head towards the centrepiece of the course: a monster 3.8km climb up to the lake at Spitzingsee where the athletes would then run 5km.
Buschhütten were the runaway favourites, but perhaps the mountain could level the playing field.
Men’s race
Márk Dévay of Buschhütten led the way in the water, as is the case more often than not. A pack of seventeen men formed behind him, however his teammate Richard Murray lost the best part of 40 seconds in the water.
Murray therefore found himself amid a chase group of fourteen men with Junior athletes Jan Semmler and Eirik Berling Grande for company. By the time the chase arrived at the mountain, the gap had been slimmed to 25 seconds. Yet plenty of firepower remained in the lead group.
Joining Dévay at the front were two other teammates: Sergio Baxter Cabrera and Maximilian Sperl. Baxter had not yet raced in 2023 so his form was a little unknown. Any cobwebs, though, were soon blown away on the road up to the Spitzingsattel.
Lasse Nygaard Priester and Rico Bogen were also enjoying strong races and up the climb they formed an elite trio with Dévay. Baxter hung within striking distance behind while Sperl slipped into the small chase group.
Priester quickly established control of the race early on in the run and put 15 seconds between him and Bogen and Dévay. As the leaders took on the run, Murray and Maxime Hueber Moosbrugger made their way into T2 and continued their rise through the standings.
On the second half of the run, Baxter reeled in Dévay but Bogen fought to remain ahead. Priester’s gap grew to 30 seconds, then to 40, as the action intensified behind. Baxter reduced the gap to 5 seconds but the finish line was in sight. The Spaniard pushed but Bogen held on to take silver by 2 seconds.
Although Hylo Team Saar could take comfort from Priester’s win, their day took a downward turn as Dévay finished 4th and Sperl came home in 5th to put three Buschhütten scorers in the top-5.
Women’s race
As clinically as Buschhütten dispatched their rivals in the men’s race, their women’s team were on another level altogether.
A quartet of Lisa Tertsch, Rachel Klamer, Mirjam Huber and Caroline Pohle gained a small advantage in the swim. Not far behind, a second quartet including Marlene Gomez-Göggel and Tanja Neubert tried to close the small gap to the front.
Huber lost 10 seconds in T1 and fell behind. Conversely, Gomez-Göggel and Neubert managed to jump into the front early on in the bike to create a five woman pack. In doing so, Neubert joined her Buschhütten teammates Klamer and Tertsch, putting three red tri-suits at the head of the race.
Over the course of the mountain climb, Pohle was dropped from the group. Prior to the climb, a chase pack of twenty-five athletes had limited the gap to 30 seconds. On the way up to Spitzingsee, though, the pack disintegrated. Margareta Bicanova was the best of the chasers and managed to just about bridge to Pohle. No one else, however, quite had the power to go with her.
Early on in the run, four became three as Gomez-Göggel lost ground to the Buschhütten trio. Klamer, Tertsch and Neubert kept together and made sure to put enough time into their rival, a World Cup winner no less, before settling the medals amongst themselves. Once they finally cut loose, Tertsch and Klamer pulled away from Neubert.
Then, at the finish, Tertsch burst away from Klamer to earn the victory.
Having locked out the podium, Buschhütten had a perfect race. With Potsdam also relegated to last place without fielding a team, their weekend could not have gone better and, barring disaster, they have essentially sealed this season’s crown.
Gomez-Göggel took 4th place in a decent showing amid heavy training. She will likely be a contender to keep an eye on at her upcoming races at the German Championships as well as WTCS Hamburg. Meanwhile, Bicanova took an impressive 5th place.
