Had a fantastic ride out today! 137km task

take off - Ron Richardson to my left

First turnpoint to the West of Chabre about 5k further on than Col St Jean, then to Pic de Bur and then to a turnpoint West of Sisteron in the valley.

It was an interesting start – most took the 2nd start gate – climbing to between 9 & 10,000ft which was cloudbase.

Lot of people got low on their way back from the first turnpoint, some went down. I managed to scrape up and then run the whole length of the Chabre ridge (just below the ridge) on three quarter VG at a speed of 60mph ground speed – very exhilarating as I was only a wing span off the trees. I was congratulated at the end by mother nature who gave me a 12.6-up climb to based.

base at 10,000ft

One glide straight across the valley to the ridge before Pic de Bur (can’t remember the name of it… it’s a paragliding site?) – with a bit of dolphin flying enroute - where I took a climb to around 9,500ft then I glided straight to Pic de Bur which anyone who has been there knows you go straight up! Nick Pain was there at 11,500ft – I pulled out at just over 10,000 and went on a glide to St Genis, via the paragliding mountain again which I took a climb at and went on a small detour to the ridge behind St Genis at 10,000ft. I then went on a glide to Chabre …. The ONLY mistake of the day! The closer I got I realised there was quite a strong westerly and by the time I got to Chabre the windsocks were blowing parallel with the mountain and a 20mph westerly wind was blowing. Oh well that was about to be the end of my day……….

I spent the next 15/20mins there with absolutely nothing and eventually flew off the end to the small ridge nr Ribier which is where I decked it and was soon followed by Ron Richardson.

Those that got into Goal flew down the middle of the valley later on in the day under clouds – no clouds when I was there! Some you win, some you lose.

Rumour has it that Malcolm Brown was in first again – the man is on fire – this could be 4 or 5 wins in a row for him.

Laragne town and take off

heading to turnpoint 1

Task 6 - 137km

RESULTS