Red Bull X-Alps 2025: Maxime Pinot wins the Prologue

Well that was tough! Maxime Pinot won the Prologue at the Red Bull X-Alps, which is the short one-day warm-up race ahead of the main event. Maxime showed his true skill early on when he was literally top of the stack as pilots launched early and had to scratch to stay in the air.

It was a case of playing the long game of patience as pilots waited for conditions to turn on. When they did, it still wasn’t straightforward, with lots of pilots bombing out. “Chrigel’s walking” went round like wildfire. He wasn’t the only one.

In the air, Australian Shane Tighe surprised everyone – including himself – by being first to top land at the mandatory turnpoint. No sign-in board, just a giant inflatable Red Bull pillar that pilots had to punch before leaping down the slope to re-launch from the grassy slopes of the Hahnenkamm.

After nearly four hours, first to land and make the dash to the finish was Maxime Pinot. Second was French teammate Tim Alongi. Third was Switzerland’s Lars Meerstetter – a rookie, he made a schoolboy error and was helped in the final sprint by a supporter who picked up his wing and helped him carry it as they ran towards the finish line. That’s against the rules – pilots are not allowed outside help in carrying equipment – and so the axe came down: DSQ’d and time penalty. Ouch.

In a statement afterwards, the all-powerful Red Bull X-Alps race committee said: “Lars Meerstetter gets a one-hour penalty for violation of Rule 2.16. His prologue ranking will be adjusted accordingly. The penalty has to be added to the compulsory rest period on Monday morning of June 16.”

So, like a kangaroo bouncing back Shane Tighe leapt up from fourth to third and was promoted to the podium.

After winning Maxime Pinot said: “It was really stable. Cloubase was low and thermals were 1m/s, really slow. We had to land after the first take off. We took a thermal to 2,000m and then had to land on the west faces on the other side of the valley because it wasn’t working. Then as usual 15 minutes after landing people flew over us!”

Tim Alongi agreed about the difficulty of the day: “It was really tough, technical conditions, but I was really happy to finish second.”

Winners of the Prologue get an extra night pass and a big confidence boost.

With the podium ceremony over by 4pm spectators were already heading off when two of the oldest in the game arrived. Italy’s Aaron Durogati and Switzerland’s Chrigel Maurer came galloping in, both surrounded by a small gaggle of supporters holding smartphones. Late but made it.

The Prologue is the Prologue – it’s a one day race and not an adventure like the actual X-Alps. But by the look of things Maxime, current European and World Champion, is flying like the champion he is. Tim Alongi is in the best flying shape of his life and a real contender. And the rest – well we saw surprises among both rookies and veterans today, and we can expect many more. Roll on Sunday!