After a quite bad start,I succeed to join the leading group close to TP1.With Yassen and a Niviuk german guy ,we leaded the gaggle untill 5kms before TP2, Then 15 pilots join us. ,4 include me decided to follow the arrow directly to TP2, Yassen prefer to a more safe way with most of the leading group.My option is better. For the last 15kms ,I do a West dog leg which permit to reach the goal in 1st position a few minutes before the 2nd We had cumulus base 3500m and best varios between 2,5 and 4,5 m/s.

 

Today the announced forecast was for weak conditions and afternoon thunderstorms, so the task was quite short – 64km.  Fortunately, I wasn’t too quick to dump my ballast, because the conditions turned out to be anything but weak – 5m/s thermals were the minimum to turn, speed was nice:)  Some pilots made goal with one thermal total!  I was trying to keep in the lead with Pepe Malecky, but then in front of the Dackstein, while thermaling in a strong thermal, I was slowed down by a violent turbulence, which made most of my glider disappear.  It was so strong that I had no chance to do anything, 75% of the glider didn’t collapse, but just fell down towards me like a bunch of fabric, no chance to react at all.  Not so pleasant above the Dackstein plateau and snow, but the glider recovered quite cleanly, so kept pushing not too far behind Pepe and now some other pilots.  I soon caught them again, Stephane was there also, again in a good position, now in final attack mode.  On the glide towards the final turnpoint I was in front and with good altitude.  At the final turnpoint we had a solid 5m/s thermal, so the question was how long to wait in it before the 7km final glide through the Abtenau valley.  It didn’t look exactly certain to me because of the expected valley sink and wind, so I waited quite a while before going for it.  It turned out to be maybe 30-60sec too much, but I didn’t want to leave anything to luck today.
On final glide the valley air was holding well, so pushed full bar and was quickly eating everyone in front of me, the usual scheme with my Magus:), but didn’t have enough distance to take also the young Italian pilot on the white Nova, who had risked a bit to leave earlier/lower so finished 9 sec in front of me.  I just saw in the Overall Stephane is 2nd, I’m 3rd.  Seems we’ll have one or even two more tasks.

 

AOn the last day conditions were looking quite weak, and wind in altitude was about 10m/s, so organizers decided for an elapsed time task of about 60km.  There were a few options we were discussing before the window, but finally everybody chose the same: first 15k over the hills, then hopping along the fingers of the long north-facing ridge, and finally crossing the valley and jumping over the small ridge into goal.

 

It was cool in the beginning we started together the three pilots in the Overall lead, with Stephane and Claudio Virgilio, so the game was gonna be pretty straight – none of the usual elapsed time bullshit mathematics game with individual leading points and times.  In the beginning it was super difficult to climb up after the start, and at that moment Claudio got away in a small core that me and Stephane just missed.  But at the next thermal it was him who was stuck, so we caught him and kept going roughly together, also with about 10 other pilots – Zamarchi, Malecky, Cristophe Eder, etc.  But at the beginning of the big north-facing ridge Stephane got a bit behind and never recovered.  Later I learned that he couldn’t make it over the small ridge just before goal and landed there, about 2km before goal.  He blew his whole lead in the Overall, too bad for him.  So it was up to me to guard the honour:)  Anyway, I was going over the big ridge quite well, and towards the end I was in front of Claudio, but close to the final glide he caught me, and then we were together, first scratching on a ridge for a thermal, then finding it, going up together in front of the others, good stuff, and going on glide to find the last thermal before final glide.  I kept straight over the ridge, and he dared to go deeper into the mountain towards a sharp rocky peak to look for the killer thermal.  A bit risky, but it worked for him – apparently he got an 8m/s to base, and next thing I knew he was gliding 500m above me on final glide, before I even had enough altitude to start mine!

 

His gamble paid off in a very nice way!  I still would’ve beat him for the Overall if I hadn’t made a silly mistake to return against the wind towards a dying thermal, but I did make the mistake, so Claudio beat me in the task by about 5 minutes, enough to overtake me in the Overall for first place by one point…  That hurt a bit, but at least he’s a good friend and a pilot I respect.  Congratulations, Claudio!