Tilo Holighaus Wins Race 3

The day shaped up with excellent weather for a 310km task. The pilots achieved good climbs to well above 2000m. Yesterday, the first leg was to the south. Today, a near perfect race day, the first leg went to the northwest.

The first decision for the pilots was whether to fly directly on track, or divert west to the high mountain ridge. The first leg was 91km.

The start altitude was 1800m, and the pilots descended from about 2300m down to the start line. Stefan Langer was the first to cross the line. After 10km, he stopped to climb and was joined by most of the fleet. However, several pilots, including Didier Hauss, continued on track.

The fleet split into two groups, both heading towards the higher ridge, with Didier out on his own ridge running and maintaining his altitude.

Tilo Holighaus after crossing the finish line 1st Race 3 SGP Final Pavullo.

Mike Young pulled out ahead at 1700m heading to Monte Vintasso, which leads to Monte Cusno. Stefan Langer was leading a group behind Mike Young and Klaus Klambach, and soon caught them up.

This group was followed by another group with Sebastian Kawa about 10km behind. This area has the highest peaks on the task and the choice was to climb to the highest point or follow the ridge line. Stefan Langer pushed out in front followed by Alberto Sironi.

After 60km, they approached Monte Caio which is popular with hang gliders. Langer was above the ridge line at 1600m, while Kawa and his group were above 1800m but behind. As they were above the ridge, they were now just looking for thermals, which were over 2000m.

Stefano Ghiorzo, previous World Gliding Champion and SGP Live tracking commentator said, 'This was the easy part of the race, but it will change.'

They now had to fly across a valley to the next lower ridge and were looking for cloud streets and convergences to fly to the turnpoint. As they approached the first turnpoint, Langer and fellow Germans Hermann Leucker and Klaus Kalmbach maintained their lead. Tilo Holiighaus and Kawa were still in the second group, still 200m higher but 10km behind. However, the first group followed the ridgeline to the west, while Tilo's group tracked directly towards the turnpoint.

Langer and his group stopped to climb while Tilo and Kawa, now over 300m higher, leapt ahead straight to the turnpoint. Meanwhile, Mike Young and Alberto Sironi were low at less than 800m.

The first turnpoint was a well known castle at Bardi (Grimaldi). Tilo arrived at the turnpoint first followed by Jon Gatfield and Luka Znidarsic. The next to take the turn was a large group led by Giorgio Galetto at over 1500m.

Tilo Holighaus landing after crossing the finish line.

The second turnpoint was a sailplane airfield 21km along the valley. The conditions on this leg were weaker. Tilo was still leading but now needed to find a climb. Mike Young and Alberto Sironi failed to find a climb and turned their engines on, effectively ending their races.

Tilo's group, including Gatfield and Galetto, had made what seemed to be the correct decision to fly direct to the turnpoint. However, both Tilo and Langer were on their own and low, while the leading group pulled away and the second group nearly caught up with them.

Luka Znidarsic was now in the lead but Galetto was more than 200m higher. Behind them was a group with Tilo and Petr Krejcirik over Monte Belvedere. They were now on the 131km third leg back south and flying through the Pavullo area.

Giorgeo Galetto had climbed over 1900m and was approaching the higher ridge of the mountains, which would give him a big advantage over the lower gliders who were limited the lower ridges. Luka Znidarsic, Jon Gatfield and Erik Borgman were all with him in the lead.

The chasing pack, led by Kawa, were diverting to the higher mountain slopes. This gave the opportunity to climb even higher than Galetto and his group. This was a tactical decision, and whether this would turn out to be a wise move or not would soon become evident. Stefan Langer, after having fallen far behind, had now rejoined this chasing group.

Galetto was still in the lead at 1500m with Kawa and Langer now flying together on their own, heading to the highest peaks at up to 2000m. They climbed to the maximum altitude of over 2100m and continued on track to the next highest ridges, but 400m higher than the leading group. They were gradually catching up and overtaking Giorgio's group.

As they approached the third turnpoint, the two groups of gliders were now together with Jon Gatfield in the lead, and slowly descending to 1400m. They had to cross several valleys and ridges, descending and climbing as they went.

Kawa was at the top of the thermals, and headed out first, 15km to the third turnpoint and 75km to the finish line. Gatfield, Galetto and Borgmann left the thermal lower and tracked to the ridge to run it into the turnpoint. Soon they were joined on this route by Kawa, Langer and the main group.

The pilots who reached the turnpoint first would be in a commanding position as they headed to turnpoint 4, and then the final 6km dash to the finish.

Maximilian Seis landing in 2nd place to win 8 points.

Stefan Langer reached the turnpoint first, followed by Lukasz Grabowski and Kawa, followed closely by the main group. With 64km to run, Langer pushed out ahead but would still need another climb to get back to Pavullo at the finish altitude of 850m.

Futa Pass was the key position on the way and was the critical position. With 55km left to race, Langer followed by the two Poles, Grabowski and Kawa, who stopped to climb. Hot on their tails were the rest of the group. As they approached final glide, it was looking to be a neck in neck race to the finish.

On this final leg, they became low in weak conditions and the fleet split up with various pilots searching for climbs. Kawa seemed to miss a climb and was suddenly behind.

Tilo and Erik Borgmann reached final glide but continued climbing to make sure they could cross the final ridge. Tilo was above Borgmann as they dashed for the finish. Tilo Holighaus crossed the line in 1st place, followed by Maximilian Seis with Erik Borgmann in 3rd place. Maximilian did not show up on the tracking today due to a technical issue, which meant all on the ground were surprised when he showed up in stealth mode on the finish line.

With a wining speed of over 105kph after 310km, it was the fastest race in this championships so far.

The championship is up for grabs with six pilots within reach of the World SGP Champion title. The weather looks excellent for the final race tomorrow. Don't miss the SGP racing action at Pavullo. Follow the race live with commentary at https://sgpfinal23.sgp.aero/live

See the full results at https://sgpfinal23.sgp.aero/results

Sean Young