The task committee couldn't have created a better task yesterday. RASP predicted thunderstorms in our area and our task slalomed 50 km through the Cu-Nimbs (thunderstorms clouds) into the most perfect soaring skies for the last 100 km.
The race went very well for me, charging ahead all the time, often seeing Zippy bank it sharply right in the spot where I was gliding to. Zippy is impossible to see on glide, his almost full technora wing disappears in the background of the landscape whenever he's gliding. We sometimes took different lines, but always ended up together. I had a slight advantage heading to our last thermal, but Zippy hit that one better and I had too much confidence that my core was going to get better. Well it didn't and Zippy glided out first and even managed to get a 3 minute advantage into goal. Seems that my line definitely wasn't the best. I left with a conservative 8 to 1 glide but had to fear I wasn't going to make it for a long time. Congrats to Zac!
The goal field was interesting though. Zippy probably stirred up the air and I hit a 3 m/s thermal when crossing the line. I took it for a while because I didn't want to land in that air. Zippy also was indicating that the winds were switching on the ground. Anyway, I should have waited longer, since the air wasn't calm at all when landing and I dropped a wing, which resulted in a hard landing. Luckily my Adidas Evil Eyes survived the intimate contact with the front wire.
Gordon came in 3rd and then there was a 20 minute wait before the first gaggle made it in. 2nd place for the day for me and 3rd overall. I'll try to keep up the good work.
Good performance by Dutch pilot Gijs as well, who's in 11th overall at this time. On the way back from the goal field, we hit a massive gust front. Apparently Sasha had to outrun it when coming to goal and she landed 25 km away.
No comments:
Post a Comment