13th World Championship. Mon 15th July - Day 1 -Task 1

With a 78km task set to goal, conditions were not ideal.

With the 5 wind-dummies on the ground, weak conditions and little thermals to speak off, the take-off conditions shut down. The race started and only some 30 minutes later did the first pilots take off - forward launching into such weak conditions, it was a true test of one's thermal ability.

With the start gaggle open to be clipped whenever anyone chose to take the lead, the race had started.  Two gaggles formed and some stragglers at the tail end, but all the pilots were off the hill within 25mins of watching a couple of bravehearts climb in weak lift to coudbase.

Personally opting to stay on the ridge, I climbed with an Enzo in a gentle 0.3m/s which eventually turned into a 2.0m/s to cloud base, pushing out to take the start gate and then taking a diagonal line back to the ridge to join the second gaggle.

The leaders were about 2 climbs ahead, closely knit and sticking firmly to the ridge. Weak climbs and the Northerly wind flushing mercilessly any pilot who was lower than 1800m.

The two gaggles made their way in blipping thermal conditions, battling constantly with the Northerly flushing over the top of the mountain, meaning that leeside lift was the only way forward.
Clipping the first TP and then heading up the valley floor to TP2 was the only way forward. Those who chose to return to the ridge battled with the leeside north wind and got flushed to the ground in no time, whilst those pilots who boldly chose the valley, found sparse thermals dotted along the course line.

The french seemed to make good headway and indeed got to goal ahead of the game.

Emile Van Wyk made a tidy goal bird ahead of the rest of the GB's in the top 10 today. Well done Emile :-) along with Jamie Messenger latterly. Guy, Adam and Adrian along with myself, struggled with the tricky conditions.

The field is still open even after this first day. Many went down before TP1 and then latterly TP2, so there is much to play.

The guys are all now enjoying an enormous Steak and Chips in a local tavern, so I think I'll join them before non's left....!

Results are not out yet, but can be found eventually at: http://airtribune.com/13-fai-world-paragliding-championship/results