SAFA Skysailor Magazine

7 September | October 2024 SKY SAILOR La Seu de Urgell, south of Andorra, and would not have to cross back onto the wet, stormy French side of the Pyrenees. This turned out to be an excellent decision. On Sunday, 23 June, the athletes gathered in drizzly Hondarribia for the start and had to run in the rain to Larun, the traditional first TP of the race, to sign in at the top of the mountain. Usually the competitors can fly down, but the entire hill was shrouded in thick fog, with driving rain making conditions miserable for both athletes and spectators. First to sign the board was Pierre Remy, followed seconds later by Lenart Oblak from Slovenia. The conditions were so bad that many athletes got lost in the fog and took a long time to arrive at the peak. All athletes had to walk back down and those watching were denied a first glimpse of the new super-lightweight submarine-style harnesses of Maxime Pinot (Neo Moonlight, 1.5kg) and Pierre Remy (Supair Alp, 1.6kg). The weather never cleared and everyone walked the rest of the day. Day 2 dawned much better and the standout athlete was Gabriel Jansen from Brazil, who had never flown in Europe before. He only started paragliding three years ago, and had to sell his car to finance his participation in the race. Two days of excellent flying had him way ahead of the rest of the leaders, until they overtook him on Day 4. Due to the strain of the first day, several athletes withdrew due to aggravated prior injuries and this included top seed Maxime Pinot, who suffered with knee problems. By Day 4, many athletes had made it to Castejón de Sos and were hiking up to get Baris Celik Team Benoit Brunet-Poirier Dario Dandeu Gabriel Jansen