Friday, August 8
    "If I start feeling better, I'll make myself breakfast", announces Renáta Kuhnová, looking a little pale just after 8 a.m. After last night's bout with some Brno bikers and "Borovicka" alcohol, she got to her sleeping bag an hour after midnight. This morning, as usual, is sunny and the line of tourists waiting for the cable car has noticeably increased. It's just Friday.



    The thermals began working in the morning hours and Peter Hvôrka joins the comfortable threesome of Kleja, Jandúch and Vrabec. A northern to northwestern wind, relatively week, is blowing and a thick inversion layer is visible in the distance with an upper surface at around 2000 meters above sea level. Only around a few of the peaks fo the High Tatras do cumulous clouds begin to form at a relatively high altitude. The discipline for today is 72km long with four turning points, criss-cross over the Low Tatras and will not be easy. The starting point today is the Polana saddle high on the crest, with turning points at the Chopok starting ground, the Lucky landing field, Latiborská hora, and back to the start at Chopok. The goal is in Važec. The start window will be open from 12:30 to 14:30, again flying a "Speed Run".





    Today's take offs are kicked off 15 minutes after the opening of the start window, as usual by Juraj Kleja. He is followed by Jaroslav Jandúch and Polish racer Jerzy Kraus alias Japónczik. During the following hours, almost the entire racing field is up in the air. By this time the strong thermals have disrupted the inversion layer and the cloud bases form at altitudes of around 2800 meters above sea level.

    Later in the afternoon the wind on the crest increases and all that can be done is to slope the third leg of the route to Latiborska hora and then slope back with occasional turning of the strongest thermal bubbles Some don't have the nerves for risking being blown over to the south side of the Low Tatras. A group of six unnamed adventurers opt for a walk back along the crest to Chopok, only to find, to their horror, at the nearest trail crossroads, that it will take them 5 hours. So instead, they choose to walk down into the valley, and by its smoking chimney they eventually find a cabin with live forest rangers and lots of alcohol. Having tasted everything on offer, they are finally loaded along with their packs into a trailer cart and hauled back to civilization.



    Even if the third and fourth legs of the rout along the crest and back are successfully flown by 25 racers, twenty of them are forced to land at the last section before the goal. Juraj Kleja is first at the goal today with a time of 2 hours and 50 minutes, and becomes the winner of today's discipline. More than half an hour later is second place Pavel Dohnalek and even when Peter Vrabec, Jerzy Kraus and Štefan Bendík also fly in to the goal, their landing after 18:00 is, unfortunately, beyond the time limit and their scores are noticeably lowered by this.

    With his fast flight, Juraj Kleja replaced Pavel Dohnalek in second place in the overall placing of the race, and even though Mirek "Radar" Stehula landed 2.4km before the goal, his lead in first place remains at 81 points. Tomorrow will be decisive.