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.

Annika Koch impressed once more with sixth place ahead of the resilient Waugh, Cathia Schar took eighth with Rachel Klamer and Marlene Gomez-Goggel rounding out the top ten in style.

“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.”