Update day 7

On the final day of the X-Pyr 2018, there was still lots and lots of
action going on. Having slept up on Canigo (TP7) for the night, Garza
flew and then walked to the turn point. He was so keen to get there
that he was faster than the organisation, who had to rush up the hill
to get his reception party ready. This meant he could stroll up to
goal… always maintaining that brilliant smile. He arrived in the
afternoon and will fly down to Port de la Selva on Sunday morning.

The battle for sixth was a classic. Hayden Grey reached Canigo first.
He worked his way up flying, but had to hike up and was then able to
re-launch, Despite a massive effort he ended the race in Ceret, very
close to the finish. There was a thrilling battle for 7th between
Keller, Aravelo and Koren.

Juray Koren had a late flight and overtook Keller and Arevalo to be
ranked 7th overall. It was extremely windy on the top of Canigo and
in the true spirit of the X-Pyr, Keller and Aravelo walked down
together. Having travelled so far in the race, they finished together
in the same place.

Bramfitt dug deep and put every energy left into making good
progress. He flew far and ended up in 10th place.

Toma was still pushing for TP 6 when the race finished. Samuel
Vuirpillot took a very northerly route and ended up in extreme
turbulence over Andorra. After a massive collapse and several twists,
he manage to sort the glider, but got more twists, and the glider
tumbled. With 30m to spare, he threw his parachute and landed in the
trees unharmed. He was retrieved by helicopter.

At TP 5, Fabian Umbricht had recovered from food poisoning enough to
fly and end up at Bagneres-Luchon. More pilots who make fantastic
progress on the final day were Linde, Veiga and Ramos.

Other pilots who were able to profit from the good flying weather
were Lukas Thoeni, who having struggled to reach TP4, passed it and
ended the race only 25km from TP 5.

An epic battle for Austrian pride continued until the last moment.
Gerald Gold and Gerald Kernstock were still racing each other on foot
at 10pm! They finished the race in the middle of nowhere and didn’t
reach their support vehicles until 1.30am.

Because so many teams were so far away at the end of the race, the
prize giving has been delayed until 14:30 (CET).

The final top ten ranking is:

1. Maurer
2. Pinot
3. Mayer
4. de Freyman
5. Garza
6. Grey
7. Koren
8. Arevalo/Keller
10. Bramfitt