Some of the world’s top 100 triathletes will take the stage this weekend in the beautiful spa city of Karlovy Vary for the ninth stop of the World Cup circuit. This is the first time the city of Carlsbad and the spa resort of Karlovy Vary, in the Czech Republic, will host a World Cup event. With plenty of challenging courses in the stunning town, we will welcome the triathletes this Sunday for the 2017 ITU Karlovy Vary World Cup.
Like previous World Cup Series, we are expecting loud and tremendous cheers from the crowds encouraging the athletes through the 1500m swim in the Rolava lake, followed by a 40km ride along the streets of Karlovy Vary and four laps of 2.5 km each to finish the race.
Men’s Preview
A large field of 66 men will be taking the start line in the open-air pool of Rolava this Sunday for the first edition of the Karlovy Vary World Cup, in the heart of the Czech Republic. The well-known Russian brothers, Igor and Dmitry Polyanskiy, will surely be among the ones to watch. Both brothers are very strong swimmers and are used to standard distance races which is exactly what Karlovy Vary has to offer. Igor will be aiming for his first podium of the season, while his older brother, Dmitry, will try to redeem himself as he has not had the best season, with only one podium on his World Cup tally this year.
But the Russian duo will have some really strong contenders in the first few strokes in the pool, like Richard Varga, who definitely will try to shine in the 1500m swim and add another race to his record 32-straight races leading out of the water.
The seven laps on the city circuit of the bike race, with some areas of corrugated terrain, will probably be the perfect stage for strong riders including Seth Rider and Eric Lagerstrom. Both Americans will be joined in their efforts with some of the usual names on the WTS circuits, such as Jonas Schomburg, who finished 15th in WTS Stockholm, Hungarian Gabor Faldum, who finished 10th in Yokohama or Italian Alessandro Fabian.
Along with those strong competitors, some of the other regulars on the circuit vying for the podium of this season’s World Cups, include Wian Sullwald (AUS), Stefan Zachäus (LUX) and Jumpei Furuya (JPN), who will be racing on the streets of the beautiful spa town.
Women’s Preview
Karlovy Vary will be the perfect scenario for Japanese Ai Ueda (bronze medal in the 2016 overall rankings) to come back after a broken collarbone that took her out of most races this season. With the race in the Czech Republic taking place only two weeks before the 2017 WTS Grand Final in Rotterdam, it will also be the perfect occasion for most of the athletes to test themselves prior to the race.
Ai will have a really strong opponent with American Summer Cook, winner of the last World Cup before Karlovy Vary, and one of the strongest women in the field this weekend, aiming to prove herself among the ones to watch when the Grand Final comes.
With none of the defending winners of last year’s ETU Premium European Cup present in Karlovy Vary this year, the field will be more open than ever. A strong squad of Aussies, led by Gillian Backhouse and Emma Jackson, will try to earn their first podiums of the season. Vendula Frintova (CZE) and Dominika Jamnicky (CAN) will also put up a great show in front of the thousands of spectators that will line up on the streets to cheer on one of the most incredible spectacles in the city.
The Elite Women will take place on Sunday 3 September at 10am CET, while the Elite Men race will take place the same day at 15:00pm CET. You can follow the action on triathlon.org/live and on our social media channels, with the hashtag #KarlovyVaryWC.