Giulio Molinari and Yvonne Van Vlerken took charge of the men’s and women's contests on the bike leg and cruised on the run to decisive victories at the Challenge Rimini half on Sunday.

Men

Molinari trailed only swim leader and Marco Dalla Venezia of Italy and German Otto Christian out of the water and, after a little dallying in transition, rode to the front at 10 kilometers. After 30km, Molinari fashioned a 2 minutes lead on Otto, defending Rimini champ Filip Ospaly, Marcus Wollner of Germany, and Per Bittner of Austria. At the turnaround, Molinari led by 5 minutes and after acing the 90km bike leg with a race-best 2:19:55 split, led Bittner and Ospaly by 8 minutes, Otto and Wollner by 9 minutes.

On a kamikaze mission in the first miles of the run, Ospaly left Bittner behind, but then surrendered to reality as the Austrian regained a firm hold on 2nd place. After a 4th-fastest 1:20:06 run split, Molinari finished in 4:09:41 with a 6:42 margin of victory over Bittner (3rd-best 1:18:36 run) and 11:04 over 3rd-place finisher Ospaly (7th-best 1:22:24 run).

Women

Hannah Drewett of Great Britain and Veronica Signorini of Italy led the swim in 27:43 which gave them a 32 seconds advantage on Margie Santamaria of Italy, 45 seconds on Leanda Cave of Great Britain, 6:09 over Martina Dogana of Italy, and 6:11 over Yvonne Van Vlerken.

By 30 kilometers of the bike leg, Cave took over and led Drewett by 1:30 and Santimaria by 3 minutes, while Van Vlerken toiled mightily to reduce the gap. By 45km, Cave stretched her lead to 2:30 over Santimaria as Van Vlerken continued to slice away the gap. After her by-far women’s-best 2:38:36 bike split - 6 minutes better than her nearest rival - Van Vlerken arrived at T2 with a 15 seconds advantage on Cave and 5 minutes on 3rd-place Santimaria.

Once on the run, Van Vlerken carved a small lead over Cave which stayed within 30 seconds until 11km of the run. On the home half, Van Vlerken maintained a steady 4:10 per kilometer pace while Cave fell off to a 4:12/km rate. After her women's 3rd-fastest 1:24:28 run, Van Vlerken finished in 4:40:54 with a 4:34 margin of victory over Cave (1:28:26 run) and 8:39 over Julia Viellehner of Germany, who closed with a women’s-best 1:19:44 run.

Challenge Rimini
Rimini, Italy
May 8, 2016
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Men

1. Giulio Molinari (ITA) 4:09:41
2. Per Bittner (AUT) 4:16:23
3. Filip Ospaly (CZE) 4:20:45
4. Christian Otto (GER) 4:23:13
5. Sebastian Bleisteiner (GER) 4:24:05

Women

1. Yvonne van Vlerken (NED) 4:40:54
2. Leanda Cave (GBR) 4:45:28
3. Julia Viellehner (GER) 4:49:33
4. Martina Dogana (ITA) 4:57:03
5. Marta Bernardi (ITA) 4:57:38