A decisive blow was made in the race for the Bundesliga crown in the fourth round in Tübingen.
In the women’s race, Buschhütten were looking to complete a perfect season and build towards the largest winning margin on record. Their male counterparts, though, were locked in a battle with Team Saar for the title.
Over the Sprint distance event, both races proved to be significant moments in the season.
Women’s race
Laura Lindemann was a late withdrawal from Tübingen, robbing Potsdam of one of their best chances of a win while clearing the path for Lisa Tertsch.
In the shallow river, the women were practically standing at the in-water start. An early burst of speed saw Tabea Huys break clear and the Junior led throughout the early stages.
Anabel Knoll of Witten was perhaps the most obvious threat to a Buschhütten and was well-placed in the early phases of the swim. Over the course of the 750m, Huys exchanged the lead back and forth with Therese Feuersinger as they pushed the pace. The Austrian pair were the first out of the water and had put a lot of time into several prominent names, such as Solveig Løvseth and Romana Gajdošová.
In the absence of Lindemann, Célia Merle was Potsdam’s key athlete and she enjoyed a good swim. Alongside Knoll and Lisa Tertsch, she was able to latch onto Huys and Feuersinger at the front of the bike.
A duo of Mirjam Huber and Natalie Van Coevorden hung close behind the lead quintet, although they could not quite close the gap. Meanwhile, Løvseth was a minute down in a very fragmented field.
As Huber and Van Coevorden slipped to 15 seconds down and then to over 20 seconds back, Løvseth organised chase pack of sixteen athletes and lurked only 30s behind the chasing twosome.
Slowly but surely, they winnowed the lead down until Huber and Van Coevorden were caught. At that point the gap to the lead five stood at 50 seconds, but another major push from Løvseth brought it under 40 seconds.
The lead pack, though, continued to work well together and maintained their advantage.
Løvseth’s pace told as the chase pack slimmed to twelve athletes and heading into T2 the deficit hovered around the 30 second mark. For one athlete in the lead group, the gap was incidental at best.
Tertsch kicked away from her fellow leaders early in the run. At first, Knoll was the only athlete able to go with her but soon after Terstch had stamped her authority over the race. Before large crowds lining the route, she was simply a class apart.
Merle and Feuersinger initially looked as if they would contest the bronze medal, but Løvseth and Van Coevorden were closing fast. Sure enough, the pair passed their Buschhütten teammate, Feuersigner, and then took care of Merle.
With Tertsch cruising to victory by almost a minute, Buschhütten looked have three of the top-4 places sewn up. Yet more was to come. Although Knoll fought to defend her silver medal, in the final stages she could not hold of Løvseth and Van Coevorden.
Knoll therefore slipped to 4th as the Norwegian athlete won silver and the Australian claimed bronze. A fantastic run split saw Gajdošová run through to nab 5th place.
With a sweep of the podium yet again, Buschhütten won the fourth round. In doing so, they took their advantage to 10 points, hitting a new marker of dominance. Led by Knoll, Witten were able to hang on to 2nd overall for the second straight round while Lüneberg claimed an impressive 3rd place.
Men’s race
Whereas the women’s race was a test of Buschhütten’s dominance, the men’s race presented them with a challenge from the rising Team Saar. However, in a late blow, Team Saar lost Lasse Nygaard Priester, the winner of the races in Schliersee and Düsseldorf.
In his absence, Team Saar’s challenge became all the more difficult while Buschhütten received a pre-race boost.
Making his first start of the Bundesliga season, Simon Westermann led the way in the swim for Buschhütten. In an early statement, he opened up a 5 second gap over the next closest man, Cedric Osterholt of Trier.
A pack of four men grouped together at the front of the race as Rico Bogen, the silver medallist in Schliersee, and Jonas Osterholt moved up. Four soon became six as Westermann’s teammate, Stefan Zachäus, and Team Saar’s Chris Ziehmer hit the front.
Several groups tried to collect themselves behind. In the first chase pack, Gjalt Panjer led a quartet and threatened to add a third Trier athlete to the lead group alongside the Osterholts. Keeping Panjer company was Thomas Bishop as the third man from Buschhütten. Eventually, the four were able to bridge to the leaders taking the lead pack to ten.
However, almost as soon as Buschhütten had three men in the lead pack, Westermann came unstuck around a corner. With time lost, he had to chase the rest of the leaders. For a while he dangled off the back of the group but a final surge was enough to see him recover.
Entering T2, the lead ten had a 20 second advantage over their nearest chasers. When Westermann led Zachäus out of transition, though, the win looked likeliest to come from the front pack.
Within the first kilometre, Westermann ran clear and established a comfortable lead. Bogen passed Zachäus to assume the virtual silver medal however Dominic Coy of Team Saar was charging through from the chase pack. Coy picked off Panjer, Ziehmer and the Osterholts in quick succession. Bishop was next, leaving Zachäus in his sights.
At the head of the race, Bogen could not close the gap to Westermann. Despite his slip on the bike, the Swiss athlete charged to a brilliant victory. In doing so, he struck a huge blow against Team Saar’s hopes.
Bogen crossed next, 13 seconds later, and attention turned to the identity of the bronze medallist. Although Coy pushed, he could not get ahead of Zachäus and the Buschhütten athlete took bronze. Bishop then finished 5th, to give Buschhütten a comprehensive victory in the round.
Team Saar sealed 2nd overall but with the gap at the top now resting at 2 points, they may have missed their chance to win this year’s title.
Trier rounded out the top-3 teams with a sterling all-round display.
View the women’s results here and the men’s results here.
