Christian Maurer Wins Red Bull XAlps
Christian Maurer pulls off the most unbelievable finish in the Red Bull XAlps. Yesterday he covered 193km paragliding and hiking and landed on the beach in Monaco. Last night he walked up Mont Gros above Monte Carlo – and slept at the top. He even beat his support and the media to the summit! Maurer has covered 1,376 km in just 10 days. Up and down the mountains of Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France via turnpoints including the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc.
Now Maurer has just landed short of the platform to officially to win the 2009 Red Bull XAlps in sensational style. The splash in the water proving he is human… many of us were beginning to wonder!
And this fouth RedBull Xalps was won by Maurer in record time.
Even his support, Thomas Theurillat, could not keep up with Christain yesterday. Christian even had to spiral down to keep out of airspace. Any infringement of airspace means automatic disqualification.
His interview on rebullxalps.com, with Hugh Miller, revealed that yesterday was “one of his most memorable and fantastic days of his career.” He beats the next competitor, fellow Swiss, Alex Hofer by 200km – at the time of writing. In third place currently is UK’s Aiden Toase – a battle that is not over for Aiden with USA’s Honza Rejmanek close behind. Second UK entry Ton Payne is in a creditable 16th place.
This who love mountains should take a look at the above video and check out the redbullxalps.com web site. There’s loads of video, photos, interviews and comment. This has been quite an extraordinary event to follow – especially so this year with the excellent live tracking and coverage.
Christian Maurer won this event in such style.
About Red Bull XAlps
Red Bull X-Alps 2009 is established as the unique and most spectacular adventure mountain race world wide. For the fourth time, 30 participants are compete for two weeks, day and night, to get from the starting point in Salzburg to the finish line in Monaco.
Their path goes straight through the Alps, crossing Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France and Monaco. To overcome a distance of 818 km, they hike, climb, run and paraglide for the victory.
Tactics and strategy are key and vital for success in the race. Alpine and flying knowledge is as important as endurance. Competitors use weather forecasts to determine whether they land up high in the mountains ready for a take of into thermal breezes in the morning which can take them flying for eight hours and over 150 km or land in the valley for hiking.
Top alpine flying skills, hiking fitness and making the right moves are central to succeeding in this race. No motorised aid is allowed, although each participant may choose one partner to aid them with logistics, food supply and keep them up to date about their standing in the race.
Many congratulations to both Christian Maurer and his support Thomas Theurillat on this incredible sporting achievement.
Xalps and Bansko
No connection to Bansko – except it show how Salzberg capitalised on the starting place for the event – and possibly how other endurance events could be staged in Bansko, Bulgaria. It also has been a fabulous example of how technology and the internet has helped to involve thousands of follows with real time data on progress, 3 D Google Earth tracking, diaries and forum comments.
Paragliding is my sporting passion. And I will shortly report on a pleasant recent flight last week from Vratsa: an undiscovered gem of a landscape and flying site just 1.5 hours north of Sofia  And on the small, but growing, group of Bulgarian pilots who have not only shown me such fine hospitality. As wells as educating me on so much more than just the flying sites in Bulgaria.
Looking ahead, I hope before too long to fly Gotse Delchev and get some photos of Bansko from the air as well as more flying on the Stara Planina, Rhodhope and Rila mountain ranges.
Bulgaria has many top paragliding sites, including the World Cup site of Sopot. But for those just wanting a taster, then a tandem flight in winter in Bansko is a perfect way to see what all the fuss is about.
