Summary written by Ruth Jessop
Day one of the first ever alpine Super Final started off with weather that didn’t even seem to impress the Highland cows grazing in front of HQ.
A short sharp 54km task was set, with a turn point at Flims and goal at Llanz. The day was slow to launch but once it got going, what a race. It was anything but a straightforward ridge run. An X-Alps breakaway group led by Christian Maurer and Aaron Durogati took a route much further into the mountains reaching heights of 3300m with stunning views of the glacier and great, grey rock faces.
Meanwhile, Honorin Hamard led the charge on the front ridge.
Between the first and second turn points some of the leaders from the first part of the race got stuck. From what looked as if it was going to be a Swiss whitewash, Italians, Joachim Oberhauser and Aaron Durogati, took end of speed, almost neck and neck.
‘It was a day where it was turbulent in places, but an appropriate task given the conditions,’ Stephan Morgenthaler confirmed.
The first 62 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/time points and lead out points.
Top 4 speed point winners – the fastest pilots round the course:
01:13:14 Joachim OBERHAUSER
01:13:19 Aaron DUROGATI
01:13:36 Adrian Hachen and Simon METTETAL
Top 3 leading point baggers – those who were in the lead the most:
138.6 Honorin HAMARD
121.5 Christian MAURER
120.8 Sergi CLARET
The average speed of the fastest pilot, Joachim OBERHAUSER, was 39.5km/h
Top 3 overall
1st = Joachim OBERHAUSER
1st = Aaron DUROGATI
3rd Adrian Hachen
Top 3 ladies
1st Seiko FUKUOKA NAVILLE
2nd Constance METTETAL
3rd Nanda WALLISER
Top 3 teams
1st Gin
2nd MacPara
3rd Ozone
Just a reminder that you can follow the commentary, the leaderboard and tracking on the live app (which is also now a webpage) at:
https://live.pwca.org
