A forecast of lighter winds and high base, pilots who were ready for a good race and an optimistic task committee = 134km triangle task crossing the Daschstein and showing what Alpine flying really should be like!
Watching from HQ on the livetracking showed lots of different lines and tactics, some fast and successful others less so! By 16:30 the lead group were passing over HQ heading towards the final turnpoint looking invincible. But this is the game of paragliding and theres nothing like it for given you a kick up the ass when you least expect it. From the goal line it soon became obvious that the front group were being really punished on the final glide as we saw R10.2 after R10.2 disappear behind the trees and then pop up between the houses in a final desperate attempt to reach the line...after all the work, racing on out in front I was gutted to see them land just metres before the line :-( For a short while it looked as if Luca Donini was also going to suffer the same fate on the other side of the hill but little by little he made the most of every morsel of lift and surfing the treeline arrived in goal first to take the title of European Champion.Renata on her Mercury III finished ahead of Petra and Elisa to grab herself a podium place from Swiss chic Regula.
Full results on the organisers website.
The late closing ceremony in the town square meant that many pilots had left town on their way to other competitions or just desperate to be back home, left early, so its all feeling like a big anticlimax now. Theres none of the relaxed 'end of comp party atmosphere' you usually get after a big comp here in serious Austria - friends are scattered all over Europe again. !Hasta la proxima!
Now I must get the chaos of my room packed away and into the truck for the journey tomorrow to Slovenia.
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