X-Alps: 2 South Tyroleans dare to cross the Alps in an extreme way

In scorching heat, 29 athletes from 15 countries set off for a one-day, 30km competition through the picturesque mountains of the Austrian mountain resort 65km south of Salzburg. The starting signal was fired at 10 a.m., the first turning point was the summit of the Mooskopf at 1.888 m - an altitude difference of 900 m. The first athlete to reach the summit was Maxime Pinot of France, who arrived at the turnpoint after 47 minutes and 24 seconds. Aaron Durogati from Merano arrived 30 seconds later and Chrigel Maurer from Switzerland reached the turnpoint in third place after 49 minutes and 20 seconds. But that was only the first part of the race. Pinot and Maurer fought a close neck-and-neck race and changed the lead several times on the way to the finish in Kleinarl. Meanwhile, the youngest athlete in the race, Thomas Friedrich from Austria, fought for third place with France's Benoit Outters. In the end, Maurer won and crossed the finish line in Kleinarl with a time of 1:49.30 hours to the cheers of the fans. Pinot arrived exactly a minute later and Friedrich ended up in third place with a time of 1:57.40 hours. Durogati and Großrubatscher point out Durogati, who is competing at the Red Bull X-Alps for the fifth time, ended up in 26th place. Tobias Großrubatscher from Castelrotto fared better, finishing seventh. For the 27-year-old, it is the third Alpine crossing with a paraglider. “It was difficult at the beginning, Maxime and Aaron were very strong, so I had to push too,” said Maurer. “I knew that the first one in the air would be the winner of the prologue. Maxime took a big risk [to start first], but he showed us that it works. We spent some time turning to climb higher at the beginning, but then we had some brilliant thermals, with a gradient of 8 meters per second. Then Maxime started pushing and I realized, OK, it would be good to fly now.” The first three athletes will all receive an additional Night Pass for the main race, which starts on Sunday. Normally race times are limited to 05:30 a.m. to 22:30 p.m. Each athlete receives a Night Pass with which they can hike through the night. However, Prologue winners gain an additional opportunity to break the mandatory rest period, which they can use to gain a strategic advantage. The results also affect the starting order of the second day of racing, which starts staggered. The prologue winner starts at 5 a.m. and the athletes follow according to the time they finished behind the winner in the prologue. For now, the athletes can recover for two days before the main race begins in Salzburg on Sunday. Here Wagrain-Kleinarl marks the second turnpoint, so that the athletes could arrive there again on Sunday afternoon if the flying conditions are good.

Football

Italy

International leagues

International

Winter sports

Tennis

Other sports

Motorsport

Cycling

Watersports

Events

Favorites

X-Alps: 2 South Tyroleans dare to cross the Alps in an extreme way

The world's best endurance athletes, adventure racers and paraglider pilots lined up in Wagrain-Kleinarl (Austria) today to compete in the prologue of the Red Bull X-Alps. Including Aaron Durogati and Tobias Großrubatscher.

Suggestions

Comments (0)