We Noticed: Taylor Knibb Outsprinted at World Cup Race, Florida Follow and More

It was hard to believe just how well Taylor Knibb raced this fall – 70.3 world title, 13th at the UCI World Championships Time Trial, the win in Kona. If all that wasn’t enough to prove just how talented the American is, though, on the weekend she “lost” in a sprint to Colombia’s Maria Carolina Velasquez Soto at the World Triathlon Cup Iquique in Chile. It is an impressive turnaround – a month ago she won a full-distance race, then was close to the win in a sprint.

On Instagram the reigning IRONMAN world champion said she “lasted four days of offseason and was just feeling pretty irritable. I wanted to be at peace – it had already been such a great year – but I knew in my gut I really wanted to race and I felt like I was missing out on a good opportunity.”

Working with her coach Dan Lorang, she did a few intensity “tests” and then reached out to USA Triathlon to ask if she could be entered in the World Cup event in Chile.

Knibb kept the pressure on the breakaway group on the bike, and would overcome a slow transition to surge to the front of the run. While she would post the day’s fastest run split (16:03), she would be pipped at the line by Velasquez.

The current World Triathlon Individual Olympic Qualification Ranking for elite women hasn’t been updated with the results from Chile, but it looks as though the runner-up finish will put Knibb into roughly 14th place in the standings, and make her the second American behind Taylor Spivey, who sits eighth.

Knibb wasn’t sure if she’d be at either the IRONMAN or 70.3 world championship events next year based on her schedule as she gears up for another Olympic appearance in LA in 2028. If there were any doubts of her LA intentions, it seems like the race in Chile has put those to bed.

In the men’s race, a breakaway after the swim that included American Morgan Pearson was reeled in on the bike and the race turned into a 5 km footrace as Spain’s David Cantero Del Campo and American Sullivan Middaugh surged to the front. Cantero would attack once he could see the blue carpet, but in the end it was Sullivan’s brother Porter Middaugh who would fly across the line in second, taking a photo finish over another Spaniard, Antonio Serrat Seoane, with Sullivan Middaugh finishing fourth and Pearson rounding out the top five.

There was also a World Cup event in Hong Kong, which was won by France’s Nils Serre Gehri (who outsprinted Australia’s Callum McClusky) and Russia’s Diana Isakova (who outsprinted Luxembourg’s Jeanne Lehair). Switzerland took the Mixed Relay in Hong Kong ahead of Russia and China.

You can see full results from the racing in Hong Kong here.

More on Alanis Siffert’s IRONMAN Florida Win

We did mention in our race report that Alanis Siffert’s impressive day in Florida might not have been a world-best time, but her 8:07:37 is the fourth-fastest full-distance race ever, and set a new Swiss record. She also set new run and overall course records for the race in Panama City Beach.

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After her 30-minute improvement to take Challenge Roth, coupled with a third-straight win at the Alpe d’Huez triathlon and a third-place finish at the 70.3 worlds in Nice, Siffert has now shown that she can master both hilly and flat courses, which certainly bodes well for a big day on the Big Island next year. She’s also coached by Brett Sutton, who has a great track record of coaching IRONMAN World Champions, having worked with Chrissie Wellington and Daniela Ryf. Sutton is now coaching the Chinese national team, so his squad spends time training in the heat over there, so one imagines that Siffert will arrive in Kona ready to deal with the heat and humidity.

A former competitive swimmer, Siffert has only been in the sport for about five years, meeting Sutton while she was doing a training camp in St. Moritz, then joining his pro squad after that.

Surprise Men’s Champ in Xiamen

This weekend’s Challenge Xiamen race was supposed to feature Norwegian stars Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden taking on Canadian Lionel Sanders. We reported that Sanders wouldn’t be at the race last week, and in the end Blummenfelt and Iden weren’t factors in the race for the podium.

Canada’s Zachary Bernier-Michaud won the men’s race after starting the half-marathon almost five minutes behind Dorian Horsten (NED), but managed to run his way to the lead in the last kilometre, winning by 25 seconds over the Dutch athlete. Defending champion Kieran Storch (AUS) would round out the podium.

Blummenfelt would end up 13th (3:52:35), with Iden taking 16th (3:53:46), both losing ground once they hit dry land – Blummenfelt was fifth out of the water.

The day was certainly a breakthrough for Bernier-Michaud, who is just 22. Born in Montreal, he grew up in Bangkok and would be inspired to take up the sport by his high-school principal in Thailand. In 2024 he won IRONMAN 70.3 Coeur D’Alene overall, and would turn pro in 2025. That year he finished 10th at IRONMAN Austria, seventh at IRONMAN Switzerland and then 10th again at IRONMAN Arizona, where he finished in 7:54:16, reportedly the youngest person to achieve a sub-8 IRONMAN finish.

This year Bernier-Michaud took ninth at IRONMAN Brazil, fifth at 70.3 Mont-Tremblant, fourth at 70.3 Tallinn before a crash less than one km from T2 took him out of the 70.3 worlds in Nice. A broken hand required surgery,

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He bounced back from the tough day in Nice, though, with the impressive win in China. Bernier-Michaud also has a Brett Sutton connection – he is coached by Jo Spindler, who is associated with Sutton’s Trisutto coaching operation.

Pérez Sala Defends Challenge Xiamen Title

There was no surprises in the women’s race in China, where Spain’s Sara Pérez Sala led from start to finish to take the women’s title for the second year in a row. She would win by almost 15 minutes over Australia’s Jasmine Brown, with South Africa’s Magda Nieuwoudt rounding out the podium.

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