An interesting and really tough day.
The strong wind from the N-NE was the signal for this day.
We thought that a few teams would reach TP2, but in the end nobody made it. Well, nobody made it, but Gabriel Jansen almost did.
He is now sleeping comfortably in a campsite next to the official landing site of this famous paragliding area, Coradouque, in TP2-Vall d’Azun.
We have another “winner” of the day, Jared Scheid, who flew 86 km to reach the second place at the end of the day. The biggest comeback today, and the longest flight also.
At south a big gaggle leaded by Christian Schugg, William Pierre and Lenart Oblak.
Noé Court was first to fly, followed by Lars, with some short glides to avoid having to walk an extra kilometre with some short glides to avoid some extra km walking.
Except for a few teams who chose the northern route. This, as we can see, has paid off.
In fact, the 2 previous leaders: Lars Meerstetter and Sebastian Weber were leading this option. The general strategy was to go south-east. And we saw some flights, but they found the easterly wind, which blew them to the ground.
Lars and Sebastian, almost following the route line between TP1 and TP2 kept a good advantage over the other teams.
Gabe, one by one, overtook all the teams he met during his fantastic flight (80 km in 3 stages). No other pilot (with the exception of Shane Tighe later on) was able to maintain his rhythm.
Meanwhile, we saw some good flights at the back. The spaniards Jordi Aymerich and Iñigo Ais passed many teams. On day 1 they finished at the back of the scoreboard, but today, other pilots had to watch how they flew over their heads.
Unlike others, Gabe made a good choice by trying to fly north near Accous (waypoint in 2022).
By flying north, he was able to cross the Laruns and reach the better areas towards the NE.
He couldn’t fly to the target because there was a “wall” in the middle, the peak of Coos. But after a short hike, he flew again from Soulor to reach his goal for the day, the official landing at Aucun.
Tomorrow morning, there is no doubt in our minds that he will be on his way at 7:00 a.m. to the painful TP2 in Vall d’Azun.
The first blisters are starting to appear on some of the athletes. So we hope that tomorrow will be a completely flyable day, which will allow us to enjoy this race even more.
A nicenote: Mael Baguet lost his tracker in an impossible place (to find it again). And they did it!!, the tracker was recovered in a field in Ferns.
So, a typical X-Pyr day.Not easy and with big changes in the scoring.
Tomorrow…more!
