Challenge Roth 2026: Laidlow Sets a New Best, Siffert Shocks
Roth did again what it does best: gave triathlon a time that didn’t exist before. Sam Laidlow covered the full distance, 3.8 km plus 180 km plus 42.195 km, in 7:21:04, the fastest time ever recorded over that distance. In the women’s race, 24-year-old Swiss athlete Alanis Siffert broke the field open and beat Lucy Charles-Barclay outright. Bavaria got a day people will be talking about for years.
Laidlow: seconds from history, and faster anyway
Laidlow went under a mark that had looked untouchable for years. His 7:21:04 beat the previous fastest full-distance time, Kristian Blummenfelt‘s 7:21:12 from IRONMAN Cozumel 2022, by just eight seconds. It isn’t an official world record: Roth sits outside the IRONMAN series and doesn’t qualify for that classification, which is why it’s called a world best time instead. But the number speaks for itself. Nobody has ever gone faster.
The splits were brutal. Laidlow posted a bike split of 3:54:58 and ran the marathon in 2:36:53. The fastest ride of the day and the new bike course record, 3:54:45, belonged to a full-distance debutant, Rico Bogen.
Behind Laidlow, a strong podium formed:
- 1. Sam Laidlow: 7:21:04
- 2. Kristian Blummenfelt: 7:26:24
- 3. Rico Bogen: 7:27:53 (full-distance debut)
The day’s big losers? Magnus Ditlev, defending his favourite status, finished sixth in 7:34:21, surrendering his own course record. Local hero Patrick Lange lost about 20 minutes on the bike and ended up ninth in 7:41:27.
For gear fans, one more detail: Laidlow rode a Canyon Speedmax CFR that hadn’t yet been officially revealed. The German brand’s new bike debuted under a record-breaking result before it was even on sale.
Siffert: a shock Roth hadn’t seen in years
The women’s race was supposed to be a duel between stars. Instead it turned into the coronation of a new face. Alanis Siffert, a 24-year-old Swiss athlete, attacked on the bike, built a lead and never gave it back. She won in 8:09:09, a huge improvement on her result from last year, with the fastest bike split in the field.
Lucy Charles-Barclay chased to the finish, but it wasn’t enough. The Briton finished second in 8:16:41, more than seven minutes behind Siffert. Third place went to Daisy Davies in 8:27:19, a career-best performance, passing Caroline Pohle in the final kilometres of the run. Kat Matthews ended up off the podium, in fourth.
For Siffert it’s a personal best and an arrival in full-distance’s top tier. One race report noted she improved her marathon by more than ten minutes on the previous year, and it was that run that sealed the win.
What it means for the season
Roth proved again that it’s the fastest playground in triathlon: a flat course, crowds on the Solarer Berg, and weather that this time worked in favour of records. Laidlow is back at the centre of the conversation about the best long-distance athlete around, and Blummenfelt showed that even a losing day still means a time well under 7:30.
But the real story is Siffert. When a 24-year-old breaks open a field that includes Charles-Barclay and Matthews, the rest of the season and the fight for Kona just got more interesting.