Less then a week after the 2006 Lausanne ITU Triathlon World Championships, a world-class field of athletes are in Hamburg, Germany for round twelve of the 2006 BG Triathlon World Cup series.
Watch race highlights from Hamburg now.
Dubbed the City Man Triathlon by the local organisers, over 3,000 age group competitors as well as 150 top Elite triathletes will swim, bike and run through the city centre streets to the cheers of some 250,000 spectators. This weekend will be also act as a test event for the 2007 BG Triathlon World Championships, which will be held on the same course in August next year.
This Saturday will host the Elite Mens race at 3pm local time (UCT+1) while the Women will race on Sunday afternoon at 2:30pm.
World ranked number one Vanessa Fernandes from Portugal has arrived and will be looking to get back to her winning ways after placing second to rival Emma Snowsill of Australia in last weekends world championships. With a strong womens field including the likes of 2005 Hamburg winner, Kiwi Samantha Warriner, under23 world champion Erin Densham and worlds bronze medallist Felicity Abram, both from Australia, Fernandes will have to work for her 11th world cup victory in a row.
Local German favourite Anja Dittmer has won here twice before, in 2003 and 2004, and will no doubt be searching for her first world cup win of the season. Dittmer has finished second three times this year, twice to Fernandes. Dittmers team mate and world ranked number two Joelle Franzmann will no doubt be lifted to a good placing by the German crowds
World ranked number three and Canadian national champion, Lauren Groves, has finished in the top ten in every race she has started this year and will be gunning for the first world cup podium of the year.
On the mens side, twelve of the top fifteen finishers from last weekends world championships will take their starting positions on Saturday afternoon in a world-class field. Three-time world champion Peter Robertson from Australia, recent European champion and worlds bronze medallist Frederic Belaubre of France and under23 world champion Will Clarke from Great Britain are only a few to watch from the stacked mens field.
Co-leaders of the 2006 BG Triathlon World Cup Series Brad Kahlefeldt from Australia and Hunter Kemper of USA will battle this Saturday for the series lead and to come one step closer to the overall world cup title and the share of the US$250,000 bonus prize purse.
Kahlefeldt, who was forced to withdraw from the world championships last weekend citing severe stomach cramps, will try for his fifth world cup win of the season while Kemper will be vying for his first.
Go to the Hamburg event page for full start lists and race details.
