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 Rappaport and Henri Schoeman, missed out in the morning, the race to finish in the top-5 of each repechage promised to be a tight affair.
Men
With five being the crucial number, a group of exactly that size escaped off the front after the swim in the first men’s repechage.
As he did in the qualifier, Brock Hoel led the way. In an improved swim, Márk Dévay was next out, while Schomburg, Bence Bicsák and Diego Moya followed in close pursuit.
As the lead five powered ahead, the German duo of Lasse Lührs and Lasse Nygaard Priester banded together to close the gap. Not long after, Simon Westermann and Tjebbe Kaindl bridged to the German pair. The rest of the field hovered behind, however Gustav Iden and Gaspar Riveros were 26 seconds down on the leaders and 10 seconds down on the chase pack.
Westermann and Kaindl went past the two Lasses, forcing the Germans to cling on. The Austro-Swiss duo did not slow, though. After a massive effort, Schomburg then dropped Hoel and Moya. As the chase reformed behind, the lead trio had earned an 8 second gap. However, Westermann continued to drive the pace to catch the leaders as dangerous runners like Lührs, Priester, Matthew McElroy, Jawad Abdelmoula and Morgan Pearson lay in wait.
The lead held at 8 seconds all the way into T2. While Schomburg ran through transition with one cycling shoe still on, the two Hungarians were much smoother. After a swift transition, Dévay struck into an early lead. Early on, though, Bicsák passed him.
As Schomburg was caught, a group of Brandon Copeland, Abdelmoula, McElroy, Lührs, Priester fought over the last three slots. Upon the arrival of the final lap, Priester attacked. In a devastating turn of pace, he quickly passed Dévay and lasered in on Bicsák.
McElroy then passed Dévay as the Hungarian began to suffer. Once Abdelmoula and Lührs had passed him, he knew the game was essentially up.
At the last, Priester sprinted past Bicsák to take the win. The Hungarian held on for a strong 2nd place while Abdelmoula, Lührs and McElroy followed to seal the slots in the final.
In the second men’s repechage, Dylan McCullough went full-throttle in the water and emerged onto the bike as a one-man breakaway.
A ten man pack hunted him, with the likes of Connor Bentley, Henri Schoeman, Michele Sarzilla and Valentin Wernz to the fore. By the end of the first lap, the chase pack was up to seventeen men and the gap had hit 8 seconds. With two laps to go, it remained to be seen if McCullough could hang on.
A lack of cooperation in the chase pack told as Seth Rider remonstrated his colleagues for not taking their turns. As the pack dawdled, McCullough continued his immense effort. By the time he arrived into T2, his advantage sat at 5 seconds.
Schoeman was the first to take up the chase on the run and passed the New Zealander. Joao Pereira was next to move to the head of the race. In the qualifier, he had pulled up and limped home. As Roberto Sanchez Mantecon and Janus Staufenberg moved up alongside him, Pereira still seemed to be going well.
However, on the second lap, Pereira’s injury resurfaced and he was struck down from the lead group. Soon after, Shachar Sagiv and Wernz moved to front. For a moment it seemed the former was ready to win the repechage. However, unbeknownst to him, he had received a penalty.
With the finish line in sight, Sagiv ran past the penalty box before realising. He then had to take the demoralising trot back to serve his 10 seconds. As a result, Wernz strode away to win the repechage. Following him were Schoeman, Staufenberg and Sanchez. After his efforts on the bike, Rider then took the final slot.
Women
As she had in the first qualifier, Vittoria Lopes led the way in the water in the first women’s repechage. Carlotta Missaglia and Jolien Vermeylen led the chase but the Brazilian mustered a notable gap.
After a fast T1, Sara Vilic moved up towards Missaglia and Vermeylen. Once Missgalia managed to bridge to Lopes, a front pack of four eventually came together.
A chase pack of seven lurked behind, with the likes of Selina Klamt, Djenyfer Arnold and Yuko Takahashi present. The group then grew to ten as, most significantly, Lotte Miller arrived. The Norwegian planted herself at the front of the pack and ratcheted the pace up. Perhaps aware of Miller’s presence, Lopes sat up from the front and let the chase catch her, while Vilic slipped back too.
Neither Vermeylen nor Missaglia, though, were willing to back down.
Eventually, Miller’s relentless power told and she hauled the pack onto the wheels of the lead pair. Not long after, she led the pack, containing thirteen women, into T2.
Nora Gmür was the first woman out onto the run and tore into the first lap. To the cheers of the home fans, Klamt took up the chase. Before long, though, Vermeylen established herself as the fastest runner and built an unassailable lead.
Although Klamt seemed to gain a little time back on the last lap, the race belonged to the Belgian. At the same time, Emma Jackson flew around the last lap to lift herself into contention. She picked off rivals one by one until she arrived onto Klamt’s heels.
At the finish, Vermeylen crossed first with Klamt, Jackson and Gmür next to finish. Lizeth Rueda Santos then held off Dominika Jamnicky in a sprint finish to claim the final spot.
Klamt’s result put a sixth German woman in the final. As a result, 20% of the women’s final was to be made up by athletes from the home team.
Meanwhile, having missed the final after trouble with a shoe in T2, Summer Rappaport led the second women’s repechage into T1. Brea Roderick was able to hang onto her feet after a strong swim.
A little further back, Gwen Jorgensen also enjoyed a good swim and emerged 9 seconds down on her fellow American, Rappaport. Tilda Månsson, meanwhile, lost 14 seconds to Rappaport.
A hefty effort from Lena Meißner brought a chase pack of six onto Rappaport’s wheel. Roderick scrapped at the back of the lead group but just about managed to hang on. Further down the road, a group of seven hurried after the leaders. Led by Lisa Perterer, the chase included both Jorgensen and Månsson.
With Natalie Van Coevorden, Rappaport and Meißner pushing at the front, the leaders extended a 13 second gap to 18 seconds over the rest of the bike.
A speedy T2 saw Van Coevorden emerge at the front. This time, though, Rappaport had no issues with her shoes and promptly assumed the lead. From there, she did not look back. Meißner and Julia Hauser also hung with the leaders, although Roderick slipped behind.
In the all-important fifth slot, Ilaria Zane looked to be holding on.
Leaving T2, Jorgensen faced a deficit of 20 seconds to the leaders. Yet as the last lap arrived, she had whittled the gap to Zane down to 6 seconds. With a target locked in view, she breezed up to the Italian and assumed the fifth slot. For good measure, Jorgensen then caught the lead quartet. After her impressive performance on the run, Jorgensen could yet have a surprise in store for the final.
Rappaport thus led the lead group home and was closely followed by Hauser, Meißner, Jorgensen and Van Coevorden.
Of note, Meißner’s result made it a seventh German woman in the final and ensured that a German athlete qualified from all four repechages.
You can view the full results here.
