{"id":28179,"date":"2025-10-18T14:09:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T12:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/challengefamily.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=28179"},"modified":"2025-10-18T14:11:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T12:11:05","slug":"new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/","title":{"rendered":"New Talent Emerges at Challenge Peguera Mallorca with Wins by Sarzilla and Sch\u00e4r"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Perfect race conditions in the Mediterranean paradise of Mallorca welcomed the sold out field of 1,500 athletes at today\u2019s Challenge Peguera Mallorca. It was a day of close racing and also a day of firsts with maiden wins from Michele Sarzilla (ITA) in 3:39:34 and Cathia Sch\u00e4r (SUI) in 4:09:09 in what was her first middle distance race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The day started with the single lap swim, that saw a large group come out of the water together, led by Justus T\u00f6pper (GER) in 22:09 followed by Sarzilla and Leon Pauger (AUT). Sarzilla exited T1 first, followed by Janne B\u00fcttel (GER), trying to put a gap between themselves and the chasers. But by the first climb on this iconic course, all 14 men were riding in one group. Soon Rafael Lukatsch (AUT) and Carlos Olivier Vives (ESP) showed their dominance and multiple times swapped the lead while trying to put a gap between themselves and the chasers. At the start of the second lap it was suddenly all change as Damien le Mesnager (FRA) attacked on the climb, quickly creating a 300m gap between himself and the rest of the field and then further extended, flying down the technical descents at speeds of up to 70kph. He entered T2 with more than two minutes over second place Lennart Sievers (GER), who arrived with Joran Driesen (BEL), Pamphiel Pareyn (BEL) and Sarzilla. Heading out onto the run and while le Mesnager held his lead, Sarzilla, now in second, was closing. By the halfway point it was down to just 52 seconds while James Teagle (GBR), now in third, was 1:33 down. In the final kilometre, Sarzilla made his move and took his first professional win in 3:39:24, one month after his second place at Challenge Sanremo. Le Mesnager came in a close second in 3:39:37 while Teagle rounded out the podium in third in 3:41:36.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t believe it, it was an absolute surprise for me!\u201d said Sarzilla at the finish line. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect to win, I paced myself pretty good on the run, slowly I caught le Mesnager but he was really strong until the end. The crowd was cheering in French, Italian, German, it was amazing!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Michele Sarzilla Takes Maiden Win at Challenge Peguera Mallorca 2025\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IDteNM0asSg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the women\u2019s race, Daisy Davies (GBR) and Lena Mei\u00dfner (GER) both exited the water in 23:33 with Sch\u00e4r 45 seconds behind. Once out on the bike, Sch\u00e4r soon caught the leaders and held her position at the front of the race. The three rode together for over 60km, respecting the Challenge 20m drafting rule, before Mei\u00dfner made her move, taking the lead from Sch\u00e4r. The three women all entered T2 within seconds of each other but a fast transition saw Sch\u00e4r, showing her short course pedigree, head out onto the run 10 seconds ahead of Mei\u00dfner and Davies. By the end of the first lap, she had extended this to 30 seconds, while Mei\u00dfner and Davies continued to run together. As the run progressed, so did Sch\u00e4rs lead and she crossed the finish line to take the win at her first middle distance race in 4:09:09. Mei\u00dfner took second in 4:12:20 while Davies finished in third in 4:13:08.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t know exactly what to expect but I was so excited to race this race as I had a big crash at the beginning of the year where I almost died so I am so happy to be here,\u201d said Sch\u00e4r. \u201cThe last lap was hard, I had to fight a bit but I am so happy. I tried to break away on the bike but I didn\u2019t want to over pace so took it easy and saved my energy for the run. There were so many people cheering for me, I wanted to smile along the whole course!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Cathia Sch\u00e4r Takes Win in First Middle Distance at Challenge Peguera Mallorca\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4fIq9aX2dkM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Perfect race conditions in the Mediterranean paradise of Mallorca welcomed the sold out field of 1,500 athletes at today\u2019s Challenge Peguera Mallorca. It was a day of close racing and also a day of firsts with maiden wins from Michele Sarzilla (ITA) in 3:39:34 and Cathia Sch\u00e4r (SUI) in 4:09:09 in what was her first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":28180,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28179","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Talent Emerges at Challenge Peguera Mallorca with Wins by Sarzilla and Sch\u00e4r - Challenge Family<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Perfect race conditions in the Mediterranean paradise of Mallorca welcomed the sold out field of 1,500 athletes at Challenge Peguera Mallorca\" \/>\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\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Talent Emerges at Challenge Peguera Mallorca with Wins by Sarzilla and Sch\u00e4r - Challenge Family\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Perfect race conditions in the Mediterranean paradise of Mallorca welcomed the sold out field of 1,500 athletes at Challenge Peguera Mallorca\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Challenge Family\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-18T12:11:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2025\/10\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-10-18-at-23.43.34.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1066\" \/>\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=\"3 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\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/\",\"name\":\"New Talent Emerges at Challenge Peguera Mallorca with Wins by Sarzilla and Sch\u00e4r - Challenge Family\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2025\/10\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-10-18-at-23.43.34.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-18T12:09:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-18T12:11:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"Perfect race conditions in the Mediterranean paradise of Mallorca welcomed the sold out field of 1,500 athletes at Challenge Peguera Mallorca\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2025\/10\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-10-18-at-23.43.34.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2025\/10\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-10-18-at-23.43.34.jpeg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":1066},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New Talent Emerges at Challenge Peguera Mallorca with Wins by Sarzilla and Sch\u00e4r\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/\",\"name\":\"Challenge Family\",\"description\":\"Every Athlete, Every Challenge\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Challenge Family\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2024\/05\/cropped-ChallengeFamily_PrimaryLogo_Horizontal_RGB_OnDark-1-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2024\/05\/cropped-ChallengeFamily_PrimaryLogo_Horizontal_RGB_OnDark-1-1.png\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":473,\"caption\":\"Challenge Family\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Talent Emerges at Challenge Peguera Mallorca with Wins by Sarzilla and Sch\u00e4r - Challenge Family","description":"Perfect race conditions in the Mediterranean paradise of Mallorca welcomed the sold out field of 1,500 athletes at Challenge Peguera Mallorca","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Talent Emerges at Challenge Peguera Mallorca with Wins by Sarzilla and Sch\u00e4r - Challenge Family","og_description":"Perfect race conditions in the Mediterranean paradise of Mallorca welcomed the sold out field of 1,500 athletes at Challenge Peguera Mallorca","og_url":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/","og_site_name":"Challenge Family","article_modified_time":"2025-10-18T12:11:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":1066,"url":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2025\/10\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-10-18-at-23.43.34.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/","url":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/","name":"New Talent Emerges at Challenge Peguera Mallorca with Wins by Sarzilla and Sch\u00e4r - Challenge Family","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2025\/10\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-10-18-at-23.43.34.jpeg","datePublished":"2025-10-18T12:09:35+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-18T12:11:05+00:00","description":"Perfect race conditions in the Mediterranean paradise of Mallorca welcomed the sold out field of 1,500 athletes at Challenge Peguera Mallorca","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2025\/10\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-10-18-at-23.43.34.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2025\/10\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-10-18-at-23.43.34.jpeg","width":1600,"height":1066},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/news\/new-talent-emerges-at-challenge-peguera-mallorca\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New Talent Emerges at Challenge Peguera Mallorca with Wins by Sarzilla and Sch\u00e4r"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/","name":"Challenge Family","description":"Every Athlete, Every Challenge","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/#organization","name":"Challenge Family","url":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2024\/05\/cropped-ChallengeFamily_PrimaryLogo_Horizontal_RGB_OnDark-1-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2024\/05\/cropped-ChallengeFamily_PrimaryLogo_Horizontal_RGB_OnDark-1-1.png","width":2000,"height":473,"caption":"Challenge Family"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28179"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28179"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28182,"href":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28179\/revisions\/28182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challenge-family.com\/challenge-family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}