- Home
- News
- Forum
- Sports
- Features
- Arts
- Business
- Obituaries
- Comics
- Gallery
- Classifieds
- Commentary
- Advertisers
- Contact Us
4,146
1,566
X-Alps Day 4: Were these pilots made for walking?
Another day of almost continuous hiking through rain and wind in the Red Bull X-Alps challenge. The good news is the top 12 athletes have made it into Italy. The bad news is the weather is unlikely to change significantly soon.
More good news is that Honza Rejmanek of Davis is in fourth or fifth place, trading off with Jouni Makkonen of Finland. Rejmanek managed three short paraglider flights that moved him ahead.
Bad news: Phillipe Barnier, of France, has withdrawn due to les ampoules, aka blisters, a major hiking hazard.
The 2009 race winner, Christian Maurer of Switzerland, still has a commanding lead, trailed by the “running Romanian,” Toma Coconea. Paul Guschlbauer of Austria, a newcomer, is consistently third.
The top 16 racers today covered between 33 and 58 km in their trek from Salzburg, Austria, to Monaco. But they walked much further. For example, Pierre Carter of South Africa, 44 km closer to Monaco, walked 96 km to achieve that distance. Rejmanek got 56 km closer to the goal.
Last year, Maurer came into Monaco just short of 10 total days of racing. At the end of Day 4, only 27 percent of the total distance has been covered. This could be a long race.
— Margaret S. Burns is a Davis freelance writer. Reach her at [email protected] Follow the race in real time at http://www.redbullXAlps.com
Comments
Recent Posts
