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"12th World Cup Superfinal ::: Mexico (Valle de Bravo)"
Summary written by Ruth Jessop
Today was another tricky day! Stable, the top of the thermals was low. It was a long task – 102km in total!
The first part was over the flats to the south west of the take off and, as predicted, it was not very easy. The pilots had to be very careful because they were always quite close to the ground and there were no clouds.
After that, they crossed the plateau going north en route to turnpoint two. This was easier because there were more thermals and they were flying mostly in the convergence.
Then they headed for the higher mountains to the north and turn point three.
The terrain was very high, over 3000m, so they had to work hard to get this turn point. As they flew over the monarch butterfly mountain, thousands of them joined the pilots in the thermal.
They then had a long leg south to the last turn point and End of Speed.
Two different route options were made here, one more on the left, close to the volcano and the other taken by the leading group, more on the west, on a ridge line.
The last part was, once again, quite tricky. A lot of pilots landed around the End of Speed due to the stable conditions.
However, by this stage, Maxime Pinot had already broken away from the leading gaggle. He climbed on a sunny southwest facing slope near turn point three and decided that he wasn’t going to wait for the others. He flew the rest of the task on his own. He took the convergence line from the fourth turn point to ESS which turned out to be a fast route. He crossed End of Speed a staggering 17 minutes before the others. His crushing performance rendered the day a discard for most of the other pilots.
In the words of Niviuk designer, Tim Rochas: ‘it was an interesting task but, yes, again really hard!’
The first 37 pilots made goal, and thus all flew the same distance, and gained the same distance points. Today’s winner is therefore the one with a combination of the best speed points and lead out points.
Top 3 speed point winners – the fastest pilots round the course
02:29:47: Maxime PINOT flying at an average speed of 32.1 km/h
02:44:40: Juan OSPINA
02:44:45: Charles CAZAUX
Top 3 leading point baggers – those who were in the lead the most
132.9: Maxime PINOT
123.7: Dominik BREITINGER
122.8: Philipp HAAG
122.8: Gavin MCCLURG
Top 3 in the task
1: Maxime PINOT
2: Philipp HAAG
2: Juan OSPINA
Top 3 ladies in the task
1: Jinhee BAEK
2: Keiko HIRAKI
3: Constance METTETAL
Top 3 teams in the task
1: Çameli Municipality
2: Gin Gliders
3: Kortel Design
3: Woody Valley
In the team competition the top two pilots in each team are scored and the second one gives the ranking. The highest placed second team pilot was Marc WENSAUER flying for team Çameli Municipality.
Flymaster live tracking is at https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=4824
Photo Gallery (click on the comment icon for a description of the photo and pilot's names):https://photos.app.goo.gl/gB5DxDqCbT7i32uQ9
Instagram: officialparaglidingworldcup
