As Day 4 dawned in the Red Bull X-Alps 2019, five-times winner Chrigel Maurer (SUI1) was top of the leaderboard, just a few kilometres ahead of Maxime Pinot (FR4). The pair started their day with a brisk hike along the valley to find launches on the south-facing slopes, halfway between turnpoints 5 (Lermoos) and 6 (Davos).
Yesterday afternoon Chrigel lost the 40km lead he had gained in the air, when he landed short of turnpoint 5, forcing him to hike up again to relaunch and fly across the valley to the turnpoint, which allowed Maxime to catch him up again.
Aaron Durogati (ITA1) is currently the closest chaser, 40km behind Pinot, but there are four more athletes within 40km of him … and as yesterday showed, a 40km lead can disappear in a flash. Paul Guschlbauer was in fourth position, but ready in place on a south-facing launch early on Day 4, waiting for the thermals to begin.
At the close of Day 3, Chrigel was nearly 300km ahead of the back marker, Lebanese athlete Rodolphe Akl. Despite his valiant efforts, this morning Rodolphe received the dreaded phone call that confirmed that his race is now over. He had made it to turnpoint three, just under 1,000km to go until Monaco, with 172km distance and 8,000m ascent under his belt. “Thank you for the adventure. It was incredible. I’ve never reached these limits before”, he said.
From now on, every 48 hours the athlete at the back of the pack will be eliminated. As Day 4 begins it is Dominika Kasieczko (POL) who is in the vulnerable back position, and she has already used her night pass last night in order to escape the chop this morning. But a lot can happen in 48 hours. A good flight, and her race could completely change.
The weather for Day 4 for the Tyrol / Vorarlberg and the Swiss Graubünden area is for local showers in the morning between Davos and Landeck, then clearing to some sunshine and good thermal conditions. Clouds are expected to build towards noon, with a moderate to high risk of some showers and thunderstorms later.
