In this edition there has been a rule change to allow the route of the race to be changed. The only reason for this would be if the weather was bad and there was a risk that pilots would have to walk for several days. This situation is bad for the athletes as it is hard on the body, soul-destroying and for the and spectators at home it is extremely boring to watch a small dot moving slowly across the screen. Athletes were consulted about this rule change and the response was very positive.
For this edition of the X-Pyr, the weather looks sufficiently bad at the beginning of the race, to justify invoking this new rule.
This makes the X in the middle of the route much smaller and the total optimised distance is now 486.9 km, some 80km shorter. The longest leg of the route is now 143.7 km.
The teams have been informed and are busy updating their instruments and plotting a new course. The race starts on Sunday at 10am (CET), come rain or shine!
There are many ways you can follow the action live or catch up later if you missed something.
The Website
If you go to the website you will see all the elements – the race blog, info on the teams, the social media feed and videos. You can check out the route and history. You will also be able to watch the live tracking.
Live Tracking
We are offering two ways of seeing the live tracking, either through
If you would like to follow us on Social Media you can follow us on Instagram or follow our page on Facebook.
Live broadcasts
To watch our live reports from the start of the race, tune in at 9:15am (CET) on Sunday the 23rd of June on our Youtube channel to see live coverage and commentary. We will then be broadcasting live from the sign-in board at turn point one at Larun, once the first athletes get closer. They must hike to this turn point so the fastest should arrive within 2 – 3 hours, depending on conditions.
Videos
You can also see the several daily video updates on YouTube. You can also access these from the main X-Pyr website. You will also be able to see an evening commentary with guest commentators on the day’s racing in both Spanish and English.
Race blog
If you prefer to read your news, you will be able to read a news summary on the competition race blog.
Weather
And if you want to keep ahead of the weather, we have a new feature in conjunction with partners XCSkies. See individual weather for each competitor linked to their live track. See the Meteo section of the website for more details.
The team of Louis Cussot/Justin Puthod have just given us the sad news of their withdrawal. Louis has been suffering with knee problems and an MRI scan confirmed some lesions in the cartilage of the knee cap. Doctors advise that if he doesn’t rest the damage could be permanent, so of course he cannot come to the race.
He will be missed! We swish him a speedy recovery and a return to full fitness soon.
In more shocking news, team Michal Gierlach and Daniel Wojstanowicz are out of the X-Pyr too. Michal, more commonly known as Spike, has been unwell with what he thought was the common cold. Sadly after a visit to hospital it has been confirmed he has pneumonia and there is no way he can participate in a race as strenuous as the X-Pyr.
Another new participant who we were excited to welcome to the Pyrenees, we wish him a swift and full recovery and to see him fit and well for the next edition.
This edition of the X-Pyr there won’t be only rivalry for the podium between the second and third placed athletes in the last edition, but their harness designers also have been busily developing new, super-lightweight “submarine-style” harnesses for the hike & fly market.
Both Maxime Pinot and Pierre Remy will be showcasing and going head-to-head with their brand-new harnesses during the 2024 X-Pyr.
Pierre will be flying the Supair ALP, which the company says was the result of “a big reflexion for Supair to come back to high level competition in hike & fly. The idea was to adapt the concept of a ‘submarine-style’ to H&F equipment. The challenge was to develop a ‘user-friendly product’ with performance and optimised weight.”
In pursuit of this goal, Supair has produced a commercially available harness which will be available to the public soon after the race. Pierre will be flying the first such available model, so the X-Pyr is the first time the public will be able to see how it looks and performs. The harness weights around 1.6 kg fully equipped, ready to race. The only thing needed is to connect the parachute.
To achieve the weight of the ALP, Supair had to choose the right material to have the best compromise between lightness and durability. This was a major consideration in the design, and the company says:
“We wanted to design the good product to fit H&F pilots’ needs while being fully aerodynamic. It was quite tricky because we did not have another product to compare with during the development. We are very happy with the result”.
In terms of safety, the ALP features an inflatable protector, which also allows the harness to be more compact.
Maxime will be flying NEO’s Moonlight Pro Model. It is made-to-measure for him to optimise drag, weight, ease of use and the compactness in the backpack.
The French company said about the idea behind the design that:
“This harness is a first step into a global “high performance project” at NEO. We are doing many tests this year aiming to get the best harness possible for hike and fly races. The main point we’ve been working on is the drag reduction, of course, but we also had to find solution to get something light and as easy-to-use as classical harness.
We’ve been doing more than 70 different 3D shapes with different settings that we’ve been numerically testing in CFD (computational fluid dynamics) to check the drag. Then we’ve selected the best one and did a prototype in our workshop in Annecy, did test flights with Max and did this loop all over again before getting the harness he will be flying at the X-Pyr!”
The harness weighs only 1.5k g, including the protector. This compares favourably with the Neo Stay Up Pro model he was flying at the X-Alps 2023.
To effect this weight reduction in this bespoke Pro model, Neo could do away with any buckles/system to adjust the settings of the harness, use ultra-light fabrics for the external shell but also ultra strong Dyneema fabrics in crucial parts (such as the seat and the bottom part of the shell), as H&F harnesses need to be very durable. Tim Alongi was recruited to do some tests in competitions, but the X-Pyr 2024 will be the real practical testing ground for this harness.
The protector is made of NEO Koroyd, which offers the best ratio between size/protection.
Both the ALP and Moonlight Pro are fully certified, as required by the X-Pyr rules.
We are excited to see how these two harnesses perform. Stay tuned for footage and race news. These two harnesses will give Pierre and Maxime the edge – but who will win the race?
Only a few days before race start, team Pál Takáts/Sergio Toro have announced they will not be able to compete in the race. Pál is a rookie to the race, having come from the acro world, via cross-country races to compete in the hike & fly scene. He was 4th in the 2023 X-Alps and a hot contender for this edition of the X-Pyr.
“Timo has left us for his final and eternal flight last Friday and I’m still struggling to find peace with this new reality…I have lost other friends in the past and even though we were not close, for some reason this hit me really profound…Maybe because I knew him since he was a small kid, maybe because I know his lovely parents, maybe because he was way too young, too skilled and talented, maybe because recently I already felt disillusioned with high level competitions, maybe because in that situation it could have happened to any of us pro pilots…Probably it is just all of it together. I cannot imagine the pain of his parents, partner and closest friends and my thoughts and prayers are with them all the time 🙏🥺 I’m raising many questions to myself about life and my passion of paragliding as I lost all the motivation to fly right now. After days of battling emotions, I came to the conclusion that I’m simply not in the right headspace for any demanding, high-level flying so therefore I cancel my participation in the @xpyrrace . It was a very though decision but since I was already in doubt, I guess it was the right one. I am lucky to still be alive after 2-3 really close calls during more than two decades of pushing hard in different disciplines and sports. Maybe this is the wake up call and slap in the face to start appreciating this fact more and to reflect on what is important in life… Céus azuis Timo, abrazos fortes e fortaleza familia querida“
Pál was a late entry to the race, but we could not refuse such a great athlete and pilot. We wish him well and hope we see him in the 2026 edition.
Sadly, the team of Emil Guariento and Matteo Folini have had to withdraw from the race at the last minute. The young Italian from Bolzano writes that:
“After the good result at the Bornes to Fly, I felt something was missing in my body, I did some blood tests and yesterday I received the results. I’m going to give up, as it doesn’t make any sense to wait longer. I’m sorry for that, it hurts. “
We wish Emil all the best in his recovery and hope he is fit and well very soon!
X-Pyr competitors do well at the European Championships
Three of our top seeds in this year’s X-Pyr have just had an excellent run at the European Paragliding Championships in Pegalajar, Spain. After 10 tasks and more than 1000 km flown in two weeks, Maxime Pinot, two-times runner-up in the X-Pyr was crowned champion of the continent.
European Champion Maxime Pinot with Race Director Íñigo Redín
In seventh place was Michal Gierlach (Spike) from Poland, who is a rookie in this years edition, but who flew over 300 km in southern Spain the day before the competition started.
And finally, last edition rookie and third overall in the X-Pyr, Pierre Remy was consistently at the top of the field but ended up 25th in the competition. The former world and superfinal champion was a scoring pilot for the French team.
Congratulations to all of them and we can’t wait to see you again on the starting line!
Finally, we are able to publish the route for the forthcoming edition of the race. There are a few exciting features to this route and it will not be an easy edition. For the 2024 X-Pyr, there will be the following turnpoints covering a distance of 592.5 km:
Start: Hondarribia
TP1: Larun
TP2: Val d’Azun
TP3: Boí Taull
TP4: Monte Perdido
TP5: Pic des Trois Seigneurs
TP6: Vall de Núria
TP7: Santa Helena de Rodes
Goal: El Port de la Selva
You can have a look at the route in detail here here.
As in every edition, after leaving the beach at Hondarribia, the athletes need to hike to Larun, a trip of 15 Km (23 km hiking really) with an altitude gain of 870 m. This is the first point where the athletes can take their equipment out of their bags and can finally fly.
From then on it is a back and forth zig-zag between France and Spain. The first long leg (the largest in this edition) is the 122.2 km trek to Val d’Azun. Last time rookie and third-placed pilot Pierre Remy will have a pleasant surprise, the second turn point is in the famous flying area where he lives. From there they go South East into Spain and visit the Parque Nacional de Aigüestortes, the waypoint Boí Taull.
Crossing back to the west, they go to the edge of the Monte Perdido in the Ordesa National Park. Since flying is restricted there, there is a large cylinder (7 km) around this turnpoint.
From there the race heads North East to the Arriege, Pic des Trois Seigneurs, north of Andorra, which may be the most complicated part of the route. After this more complications await the teams… they will head to a sign-board, where they have to land (or arrive on foot) – there is no turnpoint radius. The special thing about the Vall de Nuria is that it is in a hanging valley at 1962 m which can only be reached by rack and pin railway. Teams supporters have a free ticket to ride, as there is no access road to the monestary which will be the turnpoint. From there is is “only” 75 km as the crow flies to the end-of-race point at Santa Helena de Rodes.
Who will get there first? You can see all the competing teams here.
Race start is at 10am on Sunday the 23rd of June, on the beach at Hondarribia. See you there!
Last time rookie and third-placed pilot in the 2022 X-Pyr, Pierre Remy’s training for the 2024 event seems to be going well! Taking off from his home mountain, he managed to fly the longest flight ever flown from this site. Completing a flat triangle, he managed to fly 207 km, in a flight that is worth 299 points in the international XContest. It’s clear that we have to consider this place as a future turnpoint for the X-Pyr. What do you think?
Flying his Niviuk Icepeak X-One, he was in the air for nearly six hours and completed the flight with an average speed of 35.55 km/h.
Conditions are clearly banging and we hope they continue to do so when the X-Pyr 2024 traverses the Pyrenees in late June.
