A Viewers Guide to the 2011 Red Bull X-Alps

"It's a funny thing. From the outside the X-Alps looks like a hiking and flying race. When you look closer, you realise that really it's a flying race. And when you look closer still, you realise that really, at the heart of it all, it's a mental game. The very concept of risk for someone who is capable of being a serious contender in the X-Alps is very different from anything any recreational, XC or competition pilot would normally understand from the word. This is only something I learned from competing in the race myself. Maurer, Hofer and Muller had the appropriate mentality before they started the race for the first time, I certainly didn't."

Tom Payne 2009 X-Alps Athlete

 

click for larger image

The 2011 X-Alps Adventure Race begins at 1PM on July 17th.  This race allows paragliding and hiking along 8 turnpoints between Salzburg, Austria and Monaco.  Total distance is 864 Kilometers but the 30 athletes will cover considerably more than that as they navigate among the peaks and valleys of the Alps.   This is the 5th X-Alps and only two 2011 athletes have competed in all 4 of the preceding races - Andy Frötscher(ITA) and Toma Coconea (ROM)

The 2009 Top Three Athletes were Christian Maurer, Alex Hofer, and Honza Rejmanek from the U.S. Alex Hofer placed 2nd in 2009 and first in 2005 and 2007. Unfortunately he had a crash last month and is out of the race this year. Christian Maurer won the race in his first attempt and has been training hard to defend his title in this year's race. USA's Honza Rejmanek, and his assistant Dave Hanning, will be in their third X-Alps, placing 9th in 2007 and 3rd in 2009. He had extreme food poisoning in 2007 and still persevered to cover a lot of ground as he recovered. In 2009 he had some knee issues that slowed him a bit and required him to descend mountain roads walking backwards.  Honza is one to watch this year.

The rules include some new features.   A new mandatory rest period will be imposed every night between 23:00 and 0400.  This has potential to keep the racers a bit closer together.  Last race there were many short nights as the leaders tried to get away from their closest rivals.

Beginning on July 20th at 0700 hours the last team in the Red Bull X-Alps ranking will be eliminated. Thereafter every 48 hours the last team will be cut from the race unless the Athlete has passed the turning point Mt. Blanc.

This race is an amazing combination of flying skill, physical stamina, and mental toughness.   In addition,  a good assistant and a good strategy is important to success.  

Live Tracking will be available at http://www.redbullxalps.com/live-tracking.html
Keep an eye on the latest news at http://www.xcmag.com/tag/red-bull-x-alps/ 
Keep an eye on things - the race begins July 17th at 10PM PDT.

Tom Payne put this great table of the 2011 Athletes together:

Country	Flag	Athlete	Age	Supporter	Glider	Blog/website	2003	2005	2007	2009
ARG		Martin Romero	36	Diego E. Romero	MacPara Magus XC
AUS		Lloyd Pennicuik	45	Paul Underwood	Axis Venus	link			17	X
AUT1		Helmut Eichholzer	36	Wolfgang Ehgarter	Ozone Delta	link		4		X
AUT2		Christian Amon	41	Mario Schmaranzer	Swing Stratus			X		X
AUT3		Mike Küng	42	Thomas Arzberger	Paratech P8 Proto
BEL		Thomas de Dorlodot	26	Gatien de Dorlodot	Gradient Avax XC3	link			X	10
BRA		Richard Pethigal	42	tba.	Swing Stratus
CAN		Max Fanderl	46	Penny Powers	tba.	link			X	13
CZE		Jan Skrabálek	41	Karel Vrbensky	tba.	link			11	15
ESP		Ramón Morillas	44	Juan Morillas	Advance Proto	link			7	9
FIN		Jouni Makkonen	40	Toni Leskelä	Gradient Avax XC					7
FRA1		Vincent Sprüngli	46	Jerome Maupoint	Gin Boomerang				X	X
FRA2		Philippe Barnier	36	Hervé Garcia	Niviuk Icepeak
FRA3		Clément Latour	28	Gil Thomas	Skywalk Poison 3
GBR1		Jon Chambers	36	Richard Chambers	Ozone M4	link
GBR2		Steve Nash	48	Richard Bungay	Nova
GER		Michael Gebert	31	Florian Schellheimer	Gradient Avax XC3	link		5	X	6
ITA		Andy Frötscher	42	Martin Klotz	Skywalk Poison 3	link	X	X	14	12
JPN1		Kaoru Ogisawa	51	Masaru Saso	Gin Boomerang				5	13
JPN2		Masayuki Matsubara	40	Tetsuo Kogai	tba.					X
NED		Ferdinand van Schelven	27	Anton Brous	tba.
NOR		Ivar Sandstå	44	Inge Haustveit	Niviuk Peak 2
POL		Pavel Faron	37	Piotr Goc	Swing Stratus
POR		Nuno Virgilio	31	Samuel Lopes	Axis Mercury
ROM		Toma Coconea	36	Daniel Pisica	UP	link	X	X	2	X
RSA		Pierre Carter	44	James Braid	Gradient XC3					X
RUS		Evgeny Gryaznov	39	tba.	tba.					5
SUI1		Christian Maurer	28	Thomas Theurillat	Advance Omega	link				1
SUI2		Alex Hofer	34	Roland Moltinger	tba.	link		1	1	2
SUI3		Martin Müller	45	Yannick Flugi	Gin Boomerang 7 light	link			3	X
USA		Honza Rejmanek	36	Dave Hanning	Axis Mercury	link			9	3

source: X-Alps website, Wikipedia, own research || Age at Race launch 17th. Jul 2011 || blogs tbc. || X means participated, but injured or disqualified/eliminated

Fly Safe everyone!

Tim