Challenge Cesenatico Sprint Triathlon - Contributed By Team Parcours Member Sarah Odell

Training camps are a great way to focus on swim, bike and run, without distractions, and in incredible places, if you have the opportunity to get away. As well as learning from top coaches and other athletes on the camp. They are also a great boost in fitness. But they can also be a chance to recce a location for a race later in the year, or just to explore a new place by bike. Additionally, some training camps, coincide with a race – like the training camp in Cesenatico, Italy, that our 2025 Parcours Team Ambassador Sarah Odell did. 

Spring is probably my favourite time of year. The weather starts getting a bit nicer, we get more light in the day, and most of all it’s the start of training camp season. The opportunity to ramp up training for the year ahead, as well as to get to experience a little taster of what life is like for the pros.

This year I have been lucky enough to do two training camps, the first in Mallorca in April (one of my favourite places to train) and then secondly in Italy in Cesenatico.

I have been doing a triathlon training camp for the last three years and they make such a difference to your training. The opportunity to spend a week or more swimming, cycling, and running every day in warmer climates with no other distractions and meals catered for is amazing. Some people go on their own and do their own thing, but I prefer to do an organised camp. This means you benefit from experienced coaches to plan each session and organise everything, as well as getting to meet new people with the same desire to call a training camp a holiday! And of course, you get to eat as much as you like in the hotel buffet each day!

The Cesenatico camp is based only a few kilometres away from the start of the Ironman Italy Emilia-Romagna course in the next town of Cervia. My main race this year is Ironman Italy, so it was a perfect opportunity to train there and recce the Ironman course over a 10 day period.

We generally followed a plan of morning run then swim, afternoon bike ride followed by an evening swim. In the middle of the camp was an opportunity to do the Challenge Cesenatico Sprint Triathlon (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run) which I did.

I was particularly excited to bring my bike out here as I would be riding my new Parcours wheel set for the first time. I set my Cervelo S3 road bike with the new Strade wheelset with 28mm tires. I was riding with tubes during the camp but have since switched to tubeless. All I can say is these wheels are fast! They ride like a dream, look great, and feel so smooth. Not to mention the sound! I absolutely love these wheels and can’t wait to get the Chrono version set up on my TT bike. I knew they would be good, but they were better than expected.

The Challenge Cesenatico Sprint Triathlon was my first triathlon of the season. I am a long-distance triathlete so although a sprint race is much shorter, it is much more intense and a very different experience. I went in with no expectations, it was an opportunity to get into race mode and get a measure of what I needed to work on. It would be my first sea swim and with the Ironman also a sea swim, a valuable experience.

I always get pre-race nerves but am fine once we get going. The swim start is an intense experience with everyone running into the water together and a mass of bodies all trying to get to the next buoy. The swim had no issues and then it was on to my favourite, the bike leg. At 20km you can go all out on the bike and really test yourself. It was a rare race where you could draft on the bike and having overtaken quite a few people I soon realised I was carrying a train of riders behind me! I loved the bike leg, I was flying round and feeling good, seriously those wheels are fast!!.

Once off the bike it was into the run. It’s always a little unknown how the legs are going to feel but cheered on by the spectators and my fellow training camp friends, I managed a strong finish. Overall, it was a good race, well organised and well supported. There were lots of positives, with PB’s in each leg for a sprint, but also a good reminder that I need to work on my transitions.

Cesenatico is a lovely little coastal town in the Emilio-Romagna region of Italy, just over an hour’s drive from Bologna airport. From here you can get some beautiful rides into the Italian countryside and follow the famous Nova Coli route and its nine climbs.

Next up on the calendar is a local standard distance triathlon in June, before the London T100 in August, and then the main race of Ironman Italy in September. This will be my second Ironman, with my first last year in Barcelona. I am looking forward to learning from the experience last year, learning from mistakes and making improvements to get a better time this year.