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"World Cup La Rioja, Argentina 2021, Season 2022"
Date 24/10/2021
Summary written by Ruth Jessop
With much clearer skies than on previous days, an 83km task was set. It was a task of two halves.
As the pilots headed north the first dilemma was whether to follow the more direct route along the course line over the flats or take the more circuitous mountain route.
Above the inversion in the mountains, it was much mellower, and those who chose that route made faster progress than those who stayed on the lower terrain.
As soon as Yassen Savov got established on the back ridge he took an early lead.
At the midway point Javier Galvez took the lead by pushing out lower than the others into the flats as they headed south.
Once again, great task setting split the race into several gaggles for the second half of the race. Those who stayed in the mountains as they headed south, and those who went deep into the flats straight away.
Both gaggles came together in a struggle to go northeast in a north easterly wind to get to the last turn point. At times it was difficult to find thermal triggers, although there were patches of descent lift, but equally there were big sink holes.
As they got within a thermal of End of Speed, the crucial decision was to push on now and take the risk or gain more height and lose a few places. Those who pushed on claimed the top places.
Austin Cox summed the day up perfectly. ‘It was Chelan on steroids.’
The final happy thought comes from the youngest pilot in the competition, and task 3 best newcomer, Marcos Rosenkjer. ‘Finally, being able to fly with my childhood idols, Pal Takats, Hernan Pitocco and Felix Rodriguez, who I used to follow all the time when I was growing up, was just like a dream come true today.’
So, for the scores: The first 60 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:
2:34:33 Felix RODRIGUEZ flying at average speed of 30.9km/h
2:34:45 Cristobal OREZZOLI
2:35:08 Alvarinho Blas LUCERO
Top 3 leading point baggers – those who were in the lead the most:
158.7 Javier GALVEZ
149.6 Yassen SAVOV
146.3 Pepe MALECKI
Top 3 overall
1st Javier GALVEZ
2nd = François CORMIER
2nd = Cristobal OREZZOLI
Top 3 ladies
1st Violeta JIMENEZ
2nd Junghun PARK
3rd Evgeniya BELOVA
Top 3 teams
1st Parastick
2nd Ozone
3rd Fly Turkey
Best newcomer: Marcos Rosenkjer
All the results are available here: https://live.pwca.org/scores.php?comp=29
