The Czech city gets an upgrade to the top tier WTCS in 2025 having been a World Cup event since 2017.
Located in the east of the country, near the German border, it’s around 120km from the capital Prague.
We’re getting towards the business end of the WTCS season now as athletes look to improve their points haul from their three best races so far, with just Weihai in China to come before we head Down Under for the grand final in Woolongong.
Read on to find out how to watch live, who’s racing, over what distance and how the course shapes up…
Start time and how to watch live
The action takes place on Sunday 14 September.
The women will race first in Karlovy Vary, with the gun going off at 10:00 local time, which is CEST. This corresponds to 09:00 in the UK, 04:00 on the East Coast and 01:00 on the West Coast.
For the men, the race will begin at 15:00 local time. That’s 14:00 in the UK, 09:00 on the East Coast and 06:00 on the West Coast.
All the action will be available to watch live via Triathlonlive.tv
Course details
After two Sprint-distance races in Hamburg and French Riviera, we’re back to Olympic-distance – so a 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run.
Like Frejus last time out, this event has two transition areas: T1 at Lake Rolava, and T2 at Theatre Square.
The zig-zagging swim is two 750m laps in Lake Rolava, with no fewer than 10 turns.
Once we get onto the circuit on the bike course it features seven 4.9km loops with plenty of cobbles and climbs so this should be one of the more entertaining races of the season.
And then the run is four out-and-backs, each of 2.5km.
WTCS Karlovy Vary Elite Men
It’s a slight surprise to see Matt Hauser (AUS) lining up here given that he can’t improve his 3,000 point score after his third WTCS win of the season at French Riviera.
That was a real statement performance as he drove the race from the off, putting distance into his main rivals Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde on the swim and the bike.
That meant it turned into another run battle between himself and Vasco Vilaca (POR), with the big Aussie just proving too strong once again.
He’s had a week off in Nice before heading here and as he says: “Max points in the series for me now so the prep is all about the Gong in October.”
Ironically Vilaca isn’t at Karlovy Vary (having originally been on the start list) but Wilde most certainly is as he looks to improve his overall top three prospects. That 11th at French Riviera was no disgrace at all, coming just 25 hours after his T100 win there and just four months after that horror bike crash in Japan.
Given the injuries sustained there it was always likely to take the Kiwi star a little time to adapt to a frantic 50+ man swim and two weeks on and now over 1,500m rather than 750m in the water, expect to see him go close.
There’s no Yee here – indeed it’s up in the air as to whether we see him in another WTCS race until next season – but WTCS Alghero winner Miguel Hidalgo (BRA) lines up and he was super impressive that day in what was the last race over the Olympic distance.
The 2023 world champion Dorian Coninx (FRA) heads the French team and will likely relish the testing bike section and there’s also plenty of course knowledge on show as the last four Karlovy Vary World Cup winners return – American duo John Reed (2024) and Morgan Pearson (2023), Hungary’s Csongor Lehmann (2022) and Germany’s Lasse Nygaard Priester (2021).
WTCS Karlovy Vary Elite Women
Olympic champion Cassandre Beaugrand sits this one out after her thrilling victory in front of home fans at WTCS French Riviera a fortnight ago.
But Jeanne Lehair (LUX) pushed her all the way in Frejus and will be looking to go one better in Beaugrand’s absence.
She has plenty of tough opposition though in French duo Leonie Periault and Emma Lombardi and 2023 world champion Beth Potter (GBR) who took third, fourth and fifth respectively last time out.
It will be fascinating to see how rising Belgian star Jolien Vermeylen goes after she caused a shock with a super impressive win on her Supertri debut recently in Toronto.
And Maya Kingma (NED) is another with strong claims. She won the World Cup event here last year and her cycling prowess – she’s now a pro on the World Tour having joined EF Education-Oatly – should be showcased brilliantly on this course.
Interestingly it was Márta Kropkó (HUN) who helped Kingma put the race out of reach for the rest last time out here and she’s back again this week.
A typically strong German team are spearheaded by Lisa Tertsch, Annika Koch and Nina Eim while the USA have Taylor Spivey and Gina Sereno, the latter with medal form here in Karlovy Vary.
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