Race Recap – Challenge Cesenatico

After a successful start to the season and an intensive training block, I traveled to the second race of the season with a lot of confidence: the Challenge Cesenatico.

🏊 My goal was to translate my good training performance into the competition. We started on the beach, so we had about 80 meters of sand and shallow water before we could swim. The sprint through the sand quickly raised my heart rate, and I was already slightly behind the leading athletes, but I was able to make up some ground in the first few meters out into the open sea. Unfortunately, I kept colliding with other athletes in a battle for position, which threw me off my rhythm.

After about 600 meters, the group in front of me broke apart. I tried everything to close the gap, but unfortunately, I couldn't. So I had to swim most of the way alone again, finally emerging from the water in 14th place, 3:15 minutes behind the leaders.

🚴 From the very beginning, I felt strong on the bike. I was able to overtake four athletes in the first ten kilometers. Shortly before the first climb, I caught up with another athlete, with whom I shared the lead for about ten minutes. Unfortunately, he missed a turn and strayed from the race course and from then on, I was on my own again.

I consistently maintained my pace, but had to complete the entire second half of the course alone in the wind. During the 90 kilometers, I achieved my personal best in watts, reaching the second transition zone after 2:06:43 (average 42.7 km/h).

🏃 I deliberately took a controlled approach to the first few kilometers of the half marathon to get my legs used to the new strain. Step by step, I found my rhythm, the fast pace felt good and I was able to set a new personal best in the run as well, with an average pace of 3:35 min/km.

After a total of 3:45 hours, I crossed the finish line in ninth place - my second race and my second top-ten finish. I'm more than happy with that!

Now I'm going straight to Nuremberg for work to attend the German Ophthalmic Surgery Congress (DOC), before I start my final preparations for the Ironman Austria next week.