With so many different races taking place at WTCS Hamburg, there were plenty of talking points to take away from the event.
Among the standouts were Hayden Wilde’s magnificent victory in which he beat Alex Yee in the WTCS for the first time. In a display in which he rolled tactical nous, blistering speed and an inordinate amount of grit into one, there is not a lot more to say about Wilde’s performance beyond that it was pretty special.
In the women’s event, Beaugrand strolled to her third WTCS win in what might have been the most comfortable triumph of recent memory. As the winners, Wilde and Beaugrand deserve all of the plaudits that come their way.
At the same time, there were several intriguing talking points to come out of the competition. Here, then, we dive into some of the stories you might have missed.
Dollar bills
At the start of the year, a change was announced to the way in which prize money would be distributed in the WTCS. Previously, WTCS races paid down to the 20th finisher, with the final recipient of prize money earning USD 1,000.
As of 2023, the system was updated. WTCS events now pay to the 30th finisher. That number is particularly pertinent given that thirty athletes made the final in Hamburg. As such, anyone that made the final automatically earned themselves a healthy payday.
In the two men’s repechages, Brandon Copeland and Sylvain Fridelance missed out on taking the first spots in the final by a mere 2 seconds. That small space of time has cost each at least a four-figure cheque.
The closest athlete to miss out on prize money was actually Dominika Jamnicky. In the first women’s repechage, she was denied by Lizeth Rueda Santos by 1 second. On such small margins, the finances of athletes can take major turns.
The Queen of the Repechage
On the note of the repechages, one interesting aspect of the finals was how the additional race on the Friday evening would affect the athletes that made the final.
On the men’s side, only Lasse Lührs made it into the top-15 after racing in the repechage (he ultimately finished 15th). He was also the only man from the first repechage to make it to the second round of the final.
The story was a little different in the women’s race.
Indeed, Jolien Vermeylen was the best performer of any athlete from the repechages as she managed to fight her way to 9th place. Summer Rappaport was close behind as the next best repechage-qualifier in 10th. The title of Queen of the Repechage, though, was taken by the Belgian.
Vermeyeln has had a crazy few weeks to say the least. She kicked off a sensational run of form with a bronze medal at the European Games. A few days later, she followed it up with a gold medal at the European Cup in Holten. Another bronze medal came next, this time at the World Cup in Tiszaujvaros.
Finally, in Hamburg, she logged a massive lifetime best in the WTCS.
After Tiszaujvaros, we noted that Vermeylen had all but caught her compatriots Claire Michel and Valerie Barthelemy in the race to the Paris Olympic Games. Her 9th place finish will give her yet another significant boost to her ranking.
In the wake of Hamburg, then, Vermeylen will not simply wake up as Queen of the Repechage. She will also do so as the highest ranked Belgian woman and the new front-runner to make the Olympic team.
Sneaky Seth
Seth Rider faced an uphill struggle after missing out on the final. He finished 18th in qualifier 1 and looked in real danger of being eliminated.
In the second men’s repechage, he cut a visibly frustrated figure as he led the chase pack and tried to close the gap to the solo leader, Dylan McCullough. With five going through to the final, several in the chase had little need to worry about one man up the road. Rider, though, was none too pleased.
Over the course of the run, it was clear to see why.
Rider fell to outside of the top-5 as the likes of Valentin Wernz and Shachar Sagiv moved to the front. With the finish line approaching, that, it seemed, was that.
However, another man’s misfortune became Rider’s good luck. First Joao Pereira pulled up with an injury and fell away from the top-5. Then, at the last, Sagiv realised he had a penalty to serve too late and turned back. In doing so he went from leading to ultimately finishing 16th. With both falling away, Rider’s path to the top-5 opened up and he seized his chance, finishing 5th and earning the final ticket to the final.
His slice of luck continued in the final to a lesser degree.
In the first round, Rider hovered in 20th place and was vulnerable being one of the ten to lose their spot. However, a disqualification for Vetle Bergsvik Thorn bumped him a place to ensure even greater safety.
As it was, the looming Henri Schoeman and Jawad Abdelmoula did not catch Rider anyway. Nevertheless, Thorn’s disqualification helped smooth his passage.
In the second round of the final, Rider slipped to 16th and was eliminated. His placing, though, was by now higher than that of his qualifier. After a sterling effort, and a slight helping hand from some mistakes by others, Rider turned his weekend around and came away with a great result.
Hamburg is Lindemann’s City
Only one athlete in Hamburg managed to finish in the top-3 of every single round they faced.
Given her history in the city, it was only fitting that Laura Lindemann was that athlete. Prior to the event, Lindemann held the most top-10 finishes at WTCS Hamburg of any woman. In total, she had achieved seven. To go with that, all four of her WTCS medals had come in the city, including a memorable win in 2021.
This time round, Lindemann was the most consistent athlete in either the men’s or women’s races. In the second women’s qualifier, she finished 3rd. Next up, in the first round of the final, she was the first woman to cross the line. The second round saw her take 2nd place behind the eventual winner, Cassandre Beaugrand.
Then, in the final round, she finished 3rd and claimed the bronze medal, taking her WTCS career tally to five.
Not even Beaugrand could claim such consistency over the competition. After winning her qualifier, the French woman finished 7th in the first round of the final and won the last two rounds. To use the Bundesliga/French Grand Prix approached of adding places to determine points, Beaugrand would have had 10 points to Lindemann’s 9.
Meanwhile, on the men’s side, Matthew Hauser was the only athlete to finish in the top-5 of every round he contested. Across his four appearances, he finished 3rd (in the qualifier), 5th, 2nd and 5th.
Contrasting Age Profiles
The men’s and women’s finals had slightly different age profiles when it came to the athletes that made the later rounds.
On the men’s side, only two athletes born before 1995 made the last round. They were Kristian Blummenfelt (1994) and Tyler Mislawchuk (1994). By contrast, in the women’s final round, five of the ten starters were born before 1995, with group consisting of Beth Potter (1991), Taylor Spivey (1991), Summer Rappaport (1991), Marlene Gomez-Göggel (1993) and Jolien Vermeylen (1994).
Winding back a step, in the second round, the men had four athletes born before 1995 line up on the pontoon. However, the women’s race saw ten athletes born before 1995 start.
Moreover, in the first round, half of the women’s final were born before 1995 (fifteen athletes). Only eight men had the same age profile in the first round of the final.
The conclusion to be drawn from this information is that the top end of the women’s field in Hamburg was slightly older than that of the men’s field. Prior to the final round, Taylor Spivey made a tongue-in-cheek remark about trying to keep up with the younger athletes. She need not have worried, though. At every stage, half the field consisted of her contemporaries and the Gen Z presence was lower than the men’s field.
The Plague of Invisible Moustaches
The note of age brings us to the final, and most worrying, talking point of the competition.
Throughout the racing at WTCS Hamburg, it seemed a plague of invisible moustaches had afflicted many of the men’s field. Simon Henseleit, Matthew Hauser, Dylan McCullough and Hayden Wilde were among the most egregious cases. At the same time, such was the thinness of the ‘taches, they could well have been figments of the imagination. Likewise, there were other cases of fluffy lips that were simply too hard to deduce in the German sun.
As previously noted, the men’s final was made up primarily by young athletes, many of whom have not yet reached their full moustache-growing maturity.
With your help, though, we can make a difference.
If you donate just $2 a month, you can help these poor young men. Your charitable donation will go long way to help fund education initiatives, investment in the latest razor-blade technology and counselling for those affected.
The young men of the WTCS do not have to live like this. If you can find it in your hearts to contribute, you could make a real change.
