Kyle Smith and Anastacia Damm Nielsen win in Barcelona as a typhoon wipes out Challenge Shanghai

New Zealand’s Kyle Smith won Challenge Barcelona on 25 October after riding alone at the front for the whole 90 km bike leg, and Denmark’s Anastacia Damm Nielsen took her first professional win in a sprint for the line.

Smith finished the middle-distance race in 3 hours 30 minutes 39 seconds. Damm Nielsen won the women’s race in 4:00:59, five seconds ahead of Italy’s Marta Bernardi.

On the same day in southern Sardinia, France’s Pierre Dupuy led Challenge Forte Village from start to finish, and Britain’s Nikki Bartlett won the women’s race. A third Challenge race planned for the weekend, the first Challenge Shanghai, did not take place.

Barcelona: a solo ride and a sprint finish

More than 70 professionals started in Barcelona, according to the organisers, in a weekend that drew over 4,000 athletes. The race offered €25,000 in prize money and counted towards the PTO rankings.

Switzerland’s Sven Thalmann led the one-lap swim from Mar Bella beach in 23:54. Smith took the lead in the opening kilometres of the bike and was more than two minutes clear by 30 km. He rode 1:50:42 on the flat coastal course and started the run more than five minutes ahead.

Thalmann came through to finish second in 3:35:01, with Germany’s Jannik Schaufler third in 3:35:40.

“I am back on the rise after a pretty tough year,” Smith said, according to a Challenge Family statement.

The women’s race stayed together much longer. Damm Nielsen dropped her chain with 750 m of the bike to go but fixed it quickly. Spain’s Maria Vilas, first out of the water, fell at the dismount line and started the run alongside Damm Nielsen, Bernardi and France’s Maëla Moison.

Damm Nielsen and Bernardi ran shoulder to shoulder through the final kilometres. Germany’s Katharina Krüger passed Vilas with 2 km to go to take third in 4:07:28.

Sardinia: Dupuy’s third win of the month

Dupuy swam 22:31 at Forte Village, a minute ahead of a chase group of 16, and rode 2:03:31 to start the run four minutes clear on a hilly bike course. He finished in 3:37:56, Challenge Family said, his third win of October. Belgium’s Joran Driesen was second in 3:39:47 and Germany’s Tom Hug third in 3:40:14.

“I went all in on the bike, did a controlled first lap on the run, then gave everything until the finish line,” Dupuy said.

France’s Justine Guerard led much of the women’s bike leg, but Bartlett took the lead on the first of two run laps and won in 4:09:50. Germany’s Daniela Kleiser was second in 4:11:33 and Guerard third in 4:16:32.

Shanghai called off for a typhoon

The inaugural Challenge Shanghai, due on 24 and 25 October, was cancelled on 23 October after a blue typhoon alert was issued for the region. The organisers said all races and official activities had been called off after an assessment of the weather forecasts and venue safety.

Alanis Siffert of Switzerland, the 2026 Challenge Roth champion, had been due to headline the women’s race.

Entry fees will be refunded in full, the organising committee said, but travel and accommodation costs will not, because the cancellation was caused by severe weather. It said it hoped to welcome athletes back in 2027 but gave no date, Triathlon Magazine Canada noted.

Next: Xiamen

Challenge Family’s next professional race is Challenge Xiamen in China on 7 November. In September the organisers announced that Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden would race there, in a field of 40 professionals with a €25,000 prize purse. The full start list had not been published by 25 October.