French
star Cassandre Beaugrand was once again the woman to light up the World
Triathlon Championship Series Hamburg, a supreme run display over the final 5km
more than enough to take the tape with over ten seconds’ advantage from Lisa
Tertsch, the German edging a thriller of a finish with Britain’s Beth Potter.
The bike
had come together and Beaugrand had work to do out of transition, but quickly
settled into an untouchable rhythm that left Potter, Tertsch, Jeanne Lehair
(LUX) and Series leader Emma Lombardi (FRA) battling it out for the remaining
two medals.
“It was
good for me to race before the Olympics, it works for me to not have a big gap
between races,” said a contented Beaugrand. “I just realised that it was ten
years ago when I did my first WTCS here in Hamburg so I thought to make it
quite special for the come back ten years later. I had to catch Beth after T2
and I was not sure of how my legs would respond after a block of training in
altitude, but I felt good so I decided to go for it. I am very proud of myself
right now. I will try my best in Paris but it will not be the end of my career
if I don’t do well. And I love to be pushed by the crowds, so this is a good
rehearsal of what Paris can be.”
Tertsch
and Lehair off to fliers as Feuersigner sets the pace
Emma
Lombardi was alongside Tertsch on the right side of the start line, but it was
the Swiss torpedo Therese Feuersinger leading the rapidly spreading field
through the 750m swim and back towards dry land.
Up the
ramp it was GB’s Olivia Mathias right there too, brilliant swims from Tertsch
and Jeanne Lehair putting firing up the crowds while Lombardi, Maya Kingma and
Katie Zaferes were among those surprisingly further back off the pace.
Fast
foursome forms early on the bike
Feuersinger,
Tertsch, Mathias and Lehair began to pull away from the field before Britain’s
Kate Waugh pulled the chasers up, the pace seeing Jolien Vermeylen and Summer
Rappaport dropped off the back of that group.
Potter
and Waugh led the front pack through at lap two, Cathia Schar and Emma Lombardi
pushing the pace in the chasers as the packs came together.
Feuersinger
rolled the dice with two laps to go and opened up a few precious seconds gap,
but it came to nothing so that at the bell there was some 26 athletes all
together, sizing each other up for the 5km run ahead.
Transition
shuffles the pack
Maya
Kingma had worked her way to the front as they approached T2 but a brilliant
transition had Tertsch, Lena Meissner (GER) and Brea Roderick (NZL) out first
but Beaugrand was quickly onto the front, too, Annika Koch (GER) and Lombardi,
Waugh and Vermeylen, Potter and Schar all right there.
Beaugrand
then started to carve out precious daylight of her own, while Waugh had to stop
briefly with a loose shoe that saw her fall off the leaders and effectively end
her medal chances.
At the
bell it was a huge 11 seconds to Lehair, Potter and Tertsch as Beaugrand set
about making a huge Olympic statement two weeks out from a home Games. Just as
it looked like Potter had the silver in her grasp, Tertsch found another gear
onto the blue carpet and strode clear to the line, Potter with bronze, Lehair
following her over in fourth from Emma Lombardi.
“I have
no idea how I managed to keep the energy, I just kept telling to myself to keep
it up until I really can’t go anymore,” admitted Tertsch. “The crowd was
incredible, it was super helpful, especially in the last 200m. I thought that I
didn’t want to lose it in front of the crowd so I kept going. Preparations for
Paris are going great. I’ve work hard on my swim and it did show up today, so I
am really happy that the work in training has showed up in the race today, it
doesn’t happen like this always.”
“The big
one is in two and a half weeks, that is the goal for this year,” said Potter.
“I just focus on what I can do. My training has been really good recently but I
am confident in myself and in my team.”
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