{"id":27444,"date":"2025-05-11T19:50:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T17:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/challengefamily.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=27444"},"modified":"2025-05-11T19:51:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T17:51:15","slug":"victory-for-crociani-and-zelinka-at-challenge-cesenatico","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/victory-for-crociani-and-zelinka-at-challenge-cesenatico\/","title":{"rendered":"Victory for Crociani and Zelinka at Challenge Cesenatico"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The second edition of Challenge Cesenatico saw over 1,000 athletes and 32 nations take on the middle-distance course along Italy\u2019s Adriatic Coast. It was Alessio Crociani (ITA) and Gabriella Zelinka (HUN) who claimed victory, finishing in 3:36:15 and 4:07:59, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With calm seas and clear skies, the day provided ideal conditions for racing across a 1.9km coastal swim, a 90km bike through the Romagna hills, and a 21.1km flat, multi-lap run finishing in Levante Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The men\u2019s race began with a tightly contested swim pack, with Crociani leading out of the water in 21:43, closely followed by Magnus M\u00e4nner (GER). Just over a minute behind, a strong chase group, including Louis Woodgate (GRE), Ognjen Stojanovi\u0107 (SRB), and G\u00e1bor Faldum (HUN), exited together. On the bike, M\u00e4nner took the early lead before being caught by the chasers. Woodgate then made a decisive move on the hills near Cesena and pulled away from the group, opening a gap of more than five minutes by the end of the bike leg. He entered T2 in 2:00:44 with a clear lead. However, Crociani, cheered on by a home crowd, began to close the gap early in the run. With 10 km to go, he had reduced the deficit to two minutes. By the final laps, he had overtaken Woodgate and surged to the front, eventually crossing the line with a strong final push. Stojanovi\u0107 finished second in 3:37:40, while Matthieu Bolzer (FRA) secured third place after a tight finish in 3:37:51.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the women\u2019s race, Julie Iemmolo (FRA) exited the swim first in 25:37, building a 45-second lead over Margareta Bicanova (SVK). On the bike, Iemmolo extended her lead, riding solo into T2 in 2:21:54. A chase group featuring Gabriella Zelinka, Lisa-Maria Dornauer (AUT), and Eloise Du Luart (FRA) followed about two minutes behind. Zelinka gradually closed the gap during the run, overtaking Iemmolo in the final laps. She maintained her pace to the finish, securing the win and continuing a strong season. Iemmolo held on for second place in 4:09:42, while Rhianne Hughes (GBR) completed the podium in third place with a time of 4:10:19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Full results and more information can be found at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.challenge-cesenatico.com\">www.challenge-cesenatico.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finish line interviews:<br>Alessio Crociani: <a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/xOakJitxY4k\">https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/xOakJitxY4k<\/a><br>Zelinka Gabriella: <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/K9YNK9TW-so\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/K9YNK9TW-so<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The second edition of Challenge Cesenatico saw over 1,000 athletes and 32 nations take on the middle-distance course along Italy\u2019s Adriatic Coast. It was Alessio Crociani (ITA) and Gabriella Zelinka (HUN) who claimed victory, finishing in 3:36:15 and 4:07:59, respectively. With calm seas and clear skies, the day provided ideal conditions for racing across a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":628,"featured_media":27446,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27444","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Victory for Crociani and Zelinka at Challenge Cesenatico - Challenge Family<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/victory-for-crociani-and-zelinka-at-challenge-cesenatico\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Victory for Crociani and Zelinka at Challenge Cesenatico - Challenge Family\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The second edition of Challenge Cesenatico saw over 1,000 athletes and 32 nations take on the middle-distance course along Italy\u2019s Adriatic Coast. It was Alessio Crociani (ITA) and Gabriella Zelinka (HUN) who claimed victory, finishing in 3:36:15 and 4:07:59, respectively. With calm seas and clear skies, the day provided ideal conditions for racing across a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/victory-for-crociani-and-zelinka-at-challenge-cesenatico\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Challenge Family\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-11T17:51:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2025\/05\/IMG_3512-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1365\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/victory-for-crociani-and-zelinka-at-challenge-cesenatico\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/victory-for-crociani-and-zelinka-at-challenge-cesenatico\/\",\"name\":\"Victory for Crociani and Zelinka at Challenge Cesenatico - 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It was Alessio Crociani (ITA) and Gabriella Zelinka (HUN) who claimed victory, finishing in 3:36:15 and 4:07:59, respectively. 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