After a thrilling day's racing at last weekend's Challenge Xiamen, it's all change in the Challenge Family World Bonus, with Jack Moody (NZL) and Alanis Siffert (SUI) now confirmed as unbeatable for 2024.
While the winning titles of the inaugural Challenge Xiamen were being contended, there was a whole other race within a race being played out.
- To retain his top spot, World Bonus leader, Jack Moody, needed to finish in a minimum of fifth place in the event that Ognjen Stojanović took the win
- Will Draper (GBR) needed to finish in second to move up into the top five and be in the money
- Jesper Svensson (SWE) needed to finish fifth or above to leapfrog over Tom Hug into third
- Aurelia Boulanger (FRA) needed to finish in third or higher to retain her second place and prevent Els Visser (NED) from overtaking her
With the top five World Bonus final placings coming down to the wire at Challenge Xiamen, it made for exciting racing. Stojanović did indeed secure his first Challenge Family win and so maintained his second place in the World Bonus. Moody's podium ensured his World Bonus top spot was secure, although there was only 100 points in it. After a stellar bike, Svensson blew up majorly on the run but hung on to secure his fifth place to move up into third and Draper's second place in Xiamen saw him move into the top five. The women's placings were clearer cut. Siffert's dominating win in Xiamen meant her final World Bonus placing at the top of the leader board was never under threat. For a while, Boulanger's World Bonus second place looked in doubt, but her strong run saw her climb up the field to finish in third and able to hold off Visser whose second place finish elevated her to third place in the final World Bonus standings.
RankAthlete TOTAL POINTS 1Jack Moody1,2502Ognjen Stojanović1,1503Jesper Svensson7654Tom Hug7505Will Draper650
RankAthlete TOTAL POINTS 1Alanis Siffert1,3502Aurélia Boulanger9753Els Visser9504Rebecca Robisch8005Anne Haug600
Challenge Family's World Bonus provides professional athletes with the opportunity to race for a share of a US$100,000 end-of-season bonus on top of the prize purses at races. There are still two more points races in 2024, Challenge Canberra and Challenge Florianopolis, but these will not affect the top ranking. Points are available at selected Challenge Family and started with Challenge Israman in January and will end with Challenge Florianopolis in Brazil on 24 November.
The US$100k bonus pays five deep across both men and women with the top ranked pros taking home $22k, second will earn $14k and third will win $8k, fourth $4k and fifth $2k.
