RedBull X-Alps
I love your Yahoo Sports Newsletter. Very succinct with lots of very cool stats and rankings. I would leave out a lot of the European Soccer stuff, and instead include at least photos of the RedBull X-Alps. Instagram is a good place to research it : redbullxalps or redbullxalps.com It's billed as the World's Greatest Adventure Race, as it combines Paragliding and Hiking (for the times when flying isn't working). It will provide you way better pictures than the Tour de France. Here are the basics to get you started. 2025 is the 13th RedBull X-Alps. It's held every other year, in June, in the Alps. Christian "Chrigel the Eagle" Mauer has won 8 in row, all 8 that he has participated in. He's the GOAT, no question! No sport that I know of has had such a dominating GOAT over 16 years. Chrigel is getting a bit old, at 42, but he's still the one to beat, because he's never lost. The last couple of X-Alps, Chrigel almost lost, but somehow he always pulls it out. Once he top-landed on Mt Titlis ahead of a storm, leaving everyone else having to land in the valley and hike up after the storm passed, so, Chrigel easily won. A couple of times, Chrigel has taken a different "line" through a different valley to get to a checkpoint, surprising everyone and beating them. Last time, Chrigel pulled a "Night Pass", which you can do occasionally, and he hiked over the Alps all night long. Sadly, he launched near Interlaken, Switzerland, and was quickly overtaken by 2 French pilots, who had a good night's rest, but timed the flying better. Due to the overexertion and lack of sleep, Chrigel also got sick. I thought Chrigel was done and would finally be beat, but somehow, Chrigel still pulled it out and won. Epic! The route each time is a bit different, and this year, it's 1283km, and you can always choose to fly or hike. Of course, you want to fly at 30mph, if at all possible, rather than hike at 3mph. It's fun to watch on the computer, as every participant (about 30) has an icon that says whether they're flying or hiking, and how fast they're going. This year, the race begins Sun 6/15 in Austria and has checkpoints in Italy, Switzerland, France, and then back to Switzerland and Austria. The race is over in 2 weeks. Most pilots just try to finish. The slowest pilots get eliminated if they're too far behind the "Gaggle" of all of the other pilots. Chrigel and the best pilots will win in less than a week, probably in 6 days. Paragliding equipment has gotten better, faster, and lighter over the years, and the pilots' skills have improved, such that Chrigel won the last race in a record 6 Days and 6 Hours. They have awesome high tech gear with them as they fly up to 18,000', or about 5.4km, and a team that follows them around and brings them food and camping gear and helps plan the next day. That's enough info to get you started. Let me know if you have any questions. As an FYI, I paraglide just for fun, not competitively. Ray Vance, christieray@yahoo.com
Ray Vance
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