Get ready for the fireworks. Get ready for the noise. Get ready for the speed. The Lievin World Indoor Cup is back in less than four weeks and it promises to be an event unlike any other on the calendar.
With multiple world champions and WTCS gold medallists on the start line, the racing will be a battle royale over multiple rounds where putting even a single foot wrong could prove fatal to any medal hopes. Read on to find out which names are headlining the provisional start lists and some of the stories to track ahead of the action.
Who’s there?
Men
He’s already notched a win at WTCS Abu Dhabi this season and now he will be after more. Hayden Wilde will be one of many making his Lievin debut as he looks to maintain his perfect start to 2025. A winner at WTCS Hamburg in 2023, which was contested over the super sprint eliminator format, Wilde has long since proven himself over the shorter distances. With speed to burn, he will arrive as the favourite.
However, Wilde faces two significant French obstacles in his path to glory. World champions Dorian Coninx and Leo Bergere will be making their first starts of the season and will be in no mood to let Wilde steal the limelight before a home audience. Like Wilde, Coninx has also been successful over the super sprint format in the WTCS, triumphing in Montreal back in 2021.
With World Cup winner Yanis Seguin and 2023 World U23 Championships medallist Baptiste Passemard also in their ranks, the French men will aim for multiple medals in Lievin.
Henry Graf is certainly the man of the moment after anchoring the German Mixed Team Relay to gold in Abu Dhabi after finishing a brilliant 4th in the individual race. Look for him to make a big impact in Lievin. Likewise, Ben Dijkstra is another on a high after impressing on his WTCS debut last month. He will have 2022 World U23 Championships medallist Hamish Reilly for company on the British team.
Mitch Kolkman, the Paris Olympian, was the fastest swimmer in the men’s final last year and the Dutch athlete will hope for more this time round. World Cup winner Genis Grau could be key to Spain’s hopes while Nicola Azzano and Euan De Nigro are fresh off leading Italy to the bronze medal in the Mixed Team Relay World Series event in Abu Dhabi.
Women
She’s back.
Two words the elite women’s field were probably dreading to read in 2025 have arrived as Olympic and world champion Cassandre Beaugrand makes her first start of the season. Any hopes that she will not be in top shape following the magnum opus that was her 2024 season have already been obliterated by her recent French 5km road record. With a home crowd to impress, Lievin will be an encore of sorts from the Paris Olympics. Expect Beaugrand to put on a show at her homecoming.
WTCS medallist Emma Lombardi and World Cup winner Sandra Dodet will also be in contention. The former will be particularly fascinating to watch as she looks to emerge from the shadow of her illustrious teammate. With further French talent on the start line, a podium sweep is eminently possible.
One country that knows a thing or two about sweeping podiums is neighbouring Germany and they will be out in full force in Lievin. Laura Lindemann is back to defend her gold medal from last year while her fellow WTCS Abu Dhabi medallist Nina Eim is also on the start line.
Throw in WTCS medallists Annika Koch and Lena Meißner, as well as Tanja Neubert, the start of the relay in Abu Dhabi (and the 6th place finisher individually), and this is not a team wanting for depth.
Meanwhile, Jolien Vermeylen of Belgium will look to ruffle some feathers after claiming a maiden World Cup win at the end of 2024, Switzerland’s Cathia Schär could threaten lap some athletes with her phenomenal bike power over the short 200m laps, and Celine Senia has the chance to cause an upset racing under the World Triathlon colours as she switches her sporting nationality from France to Spain.
Four talking points
A Franco-German affair
Don’t you just hate it when you organise a wonderful party with great food, music and vibes only for your neighbour to come crashing through the wall and ruin your best-laid plans. In some ways, this is the chilling prospect facing the hosts in Lievin.
With three world champions starting and a glittering line-up in general, the home French team will be the favourites to come away with the most medals. Wilde is an obvious spoiler on the men’s side, although as the only athlete from New Zealand racing he does not really pose a great threat to the overall medal tally. Instead, the German squad appear best positioned to crash the home team’s party with its surfeit of talent.
Considering the strength of the French and German line-ups, the question at this stage is not whether they will come away with any medals. Nor is it how many medals they will win. Rather, the question to ask is which of the two will out-do the other on the medal table. If France are to have the party they hope for in Lievin, they will have to meet the challenge of the guests from over the border that are unlikely to stand demurely in the corner.
Lindemann with a point to prove?
From an objective standpoint, the answer to the question “does Laura Lindemann have a point to prove” is simple. No. She doesn’t. A WTCS winner, an Olympic gold medallist and perhaps the single best female relay anchor of the past two years, she has attained highs few can aspire to. As the defending champion in Lievin, she will expect the gold this time round. Even accounting for Beaugrand’s sensational levels, over the shortest distances few can contend with Lindemann.
Moreover, she arrives in form; Lindemann recently medalled at WTCS Abu Dhabi. And yet Abu Dhabi is the entire reason for the question posed here. By finishing as the third German woman on the podium, a threat now exists to Lindemann’s place at the top of the national pecking order. It is an unfamiliar position for an athlete that has so often been the face of German triathlon for the best part of the last decade.
One of the women that beat her in Abu Dhabi, Eim, also won in Lievin in 2022 when it was a European Cup. Having out-sprinted Lindemann in Abu Dhabi, Eim will back herself to do so again in France. Lindemann therefore finds herself with compatriots nipping at her heels and while she does not have anything to prove per se, she may look to put a few rivals in their places in Lievin.
Seguin’s audition
Vincent Luis is gone. Leo Bergere is moving up to the T100 this year. Dorian Coninx is into his 30s. Pierre Le Corre is seemingly immortal and still going strong, but even he might decide the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 are a bridge too far. Altogether, the image facing the French men’s team is a cycle of upheaval and renewal. Step forward Yanis Seguin.
The winner of the Rome World Cup last year, Seguin also finished 2nd at the World Cup in Samarkand and at the European Championships in Vichy. He is very much the coming man of French triathlon and in Lievin he will have the chance to establish himself as France’s leading man over the next Olympic cycle. With Bergere and Coninx in attendance, this will be the chance for Seguin to score a victory over his compatriots that could prove to be bigger than the race itself.
Holding your nerve
The format in Lievin demands speed, but it also requires patience. With each round consisting of a 200m swim, 2.8km bike and 1km run, the races are over quickly. Last year’s results indicate that a glorious long-range attack will not pay off and, while it would be amazing to see an electrifying solo attack lift the crowd of 5000 to their feet, chances are the deciding move will come in the final 100m.
Sprint finishes settled the A and B finals last year and more of the same can be expected this time around. Anyone that saw Dorian Coninx’s sprint finish to win the WTCS Final in 2023 will be inclined to back him. Similarly, Beaugrand came out on top in multiple sprint showdowns with Lisa Tertsch and Beth Potter in last year’s WTCS.
Nevertheless, with several athletes bumping shoulders in a narrow, mad-cap last dash to the line with the full force of the arena in their heads, keeping one’s cool will be easier said than done. Speed will be important however holding one’s nerve will be everything.
Stay up to date with all the latest ahead of Lievin across all World Triathlon channels and catch the racing live on 22nd March on TriathlonLive.
