After another hard day of racing at the Red Bull X-Alps, it’s all very tight at the top. Chrigel retains his lead at the close of play, but the margins are very slim. He finished 7.5km ahead of Patrick Von Känel, and Aaron Durogati finished in third position, having led for a while around Säntis.
As he knew was going to happen, Andrei Rushak was eliminated at 6am, the first pilot to face the chop of the axeman, but he will not be the last. Every 48 hours the team at the back will now be eliminated.
For the two Swiss leaders, Chrigel and Patrick, the day started with a hike above the snowline on Grachelspitze, 2,700m, from where they had a good high position to get in a good flight and make the Rhine valley crossing – it’s a very wide valley and a crux of the day. Both pilots made the crossing successfully, as did Aaron Durogati, who was first to Turnpoint 6, Säntis. His lead was short-lived, as Chrigel snuck in a great flight from a hill called Gulmen (1,789m) in the evening, giving him a good enough flight to retake the lead.
The two women in the race, Laurie Genovese (FRA4) and Yael Margelisch (SUI4) teamed up for part of the day and tagged TP5 Lermoos together in 17th and 18th positions. But by the close of play Yael had pulled ahead of Laurie by 20km or so, and they were in 16th and 21st positions.
Gavin McClurg (USA1) has had a difficult X-Alps so far in terms of things not quite going his way, but it has not dampened his spirits. He had a great flight to turnpoint 4, as his onboard footage showed. By the end of the day he was 10km ahead of Nick Neynens (NZL1) who is at the back of the pack, on his way to Turnpoint 5, Lermoos.
Overdevelopment later in the day meant storms and more hiking in the rain. The spread between Chrigel at the front, with 734km to go, and Nick who has 960km still to go, is now 226km.
The top three positions at the close of Day 4 were:
- Chrigel Maurer (SUI1), 742.9km
- Patrick Von Känel (SUI2), 750.5km
- Aaron Durogati (ITA1), 751.5
Watch the live tracking here.
