Challenge Sir Bani Yas results: Boulanger wins again as Guisolan rides rivals into the ground

Aurelia Boulanger and Jonathan Guisolan claimed terrific pro victories on Saturday when Challenge Sir Bani Yas made its debut to kick off the 2025 season.

This was a race which had really captured the attention in the build-up, with Sir Bani Yas one of eight Al Dhafra desert islands and being home to Arabian oryx, gazelles, giraffes, hyenas and cheetahs. Quite the backdrop for pro triathlon.

It was Boulanger and Guisolan who proved the big dogs on Saturday though as they took the tape on a day of fascinating action. Here is how both pro races unfolded.

Pro Women – French star grinds down rivals

Eventual winner Boulanger (FRA) – who had claimed three consecutive Challenge victories in a golden run during 2024 – was 5:18 off the pace set by Spain’s Sara Perez Sala as the field excited the azure-blue waters. British stars Chloe Sparrow and Lottie Lucas were the closest to Perez Sala, both just under a minute-and-a-half away.

Perez Sala continued to dominate on the first half of the bike leg, building a lead of more than four minutes over Australia’s Milan Agnew with Lucas in third. Boulanger had moved up to fourth place by now, but was still more than five minutes off the pace.

Boulanger continued her move through the field by surging up to second place with 20km remaining on two wheels, and at last started to cut into Perez Sala’s advantage. By the time the field reached T2, Perez Sala was now only 2:17 ahead of her French rival and the writing was on the wall for the long-time leader. Agnew had fallen away to 5:39 back in third.

The pass came early on the run as Boulanger erased the remaining gap and claimed the lead within the first 3km, and she quickly put more than a minute between herself and the chasers – still headed by Perez Sala.

Sara kept that deficit at a similar level until the elastic band finally snapped for good at around 10km, with Aurelia extending her lead at the front to 2:42. That appeared to be a decisive margin, but Perez Sala stuck to her task and began to whittle it away again in the closing stages. She would run out of road though, with Boulanger taking the tape 1:11 ahead of the Spaniard.

Britain’s Lucas would claim the final spot on the podium, 6:30 behind the winner and just over a minute clear of fourth-placed finisher Merle Brunnee (GER).

Challenge Cesenatico 2024 debut - image credit Jose Luis Hourcade / Challenge Family — Aurelia Boulanger claimed yet another Challenge victory to kick off 2025 in Sir Bani Yas.

Pro Men – Guisolan rides to glory

Guisolan was more than three minutes behind the leaders – headed by South Africa’s Henri Schoeman (RSA) after the swim, but that would be as good as it got for Henri. He had injured his foot during swim familiarisation on Friday and was forced to DNF on the run today after fighting through the pain on the bike.

It was Britain’s Kieran Lindars – a terrific eighth at the IRONMAN World Championship last year after that fairytale second behind Kristian Blummenfelt at IRONMAN Frankfurt – who was cutting out the pace at the front on the bike with Csongor Lehmann (HUN), Martin Demuth (CZE) and Sweden’s Jesper Svensson all giving chase. By the time field went through 30km, Guisolan was only just over a minute back from Lindars.

By the time the leaders reached the end of lap 1 of 2 on the bike, Guisolan had not only surged to the front of the race, but had already built a gap of 23 seconds over the chase group.

The second half of the bike leg was utter domination from Guisolan, as he rode the rest of the field into submission, leading by more than 6 minutes from that five-strong chasing pack as they arrived in T2.

It was now very much Guisolan’s race to lose, but it would take an epic collapse from the Swiss star, who only transitioned to triathlon in 2022 after earlier being a semi-professional cyclist (which might explain that blistering 2:11:13 bike split).

There was a glimmer of hope for the chasers though as that big gap gradually came down to 2:56 by the time Guisolan and his nearest rivals passed through 11km. Would they have enough time to catch the leader?

The answer was in the negative as Guisolan stuck gamely to his task, managing his advantage to take the tape by almost exactly a minute from Lehmann, with Lindars claiming the final spot on the podium.

Sadly of course there would be no Sam Laidlow in action here, the 2023 IRONMAN World Champion was on hand for the week’s events, but is still recovering from the health issues which have curtailed his 2025 season so far.