Monday 2000-7-3
    Despite the pessimistic predictions of some and the secret wishes of others, the morning sky was cloudless, and the sun rapidly warmed the tents and the passing of a weather front did not take place. Even Mirek Varvarovsky, after sticking his head out of the tent, quickly realized that the danger of another climb up to Kriska Gora loomed near at hand, the third in a row.




    So the whole racing field for the third time overcame the 530m over height, from the lower station of t he cable car to the Kirska Gora and the look of some characters was woeful already in the first third of the hill. "I'll pray the weather front into existence", panted the slightly heavyset Petr Dvorak and freuently he totteringly leaned on the clever wooden railing put up for this purpose.

    "33 minutes! 33 minutes!", called the evidently self-satisfied Tomas Lednik, who had just, at a swift tempo, reached the top of the hill. Happily blinking at his watch and carefully stepping over the sprawling bodies of gurgling competitors who, on the brink of cardio-vascular attacks, were in cramps holding their chests, while swarms of Slovenian flies circled their bodies wildly.



    A considerably strong wind on the runway unsettled just about everyone. For one reason that they would have to race in this strong of a wind, and the other reason being that if the race were called off, they would have to grunt back down, on foot again.




    Measurements directly on the runway showed a wind speed of up to 10 m/s at times, which, for a hang glider, is considerably high. the briefing was therefore postponed, and a long wait ensued, which some turned into a very pleasant afternoon siesta. Cigarettes lit up and from somewhere there appeared cans of beer.




    At the next briefing, one hour later, it was, however surprisingly, decided that the race will take place and the Start window will be open at 13:30. And because this type of race, a race to goal, measures each pilot's time from the moment of opening of the marker, at 13:29 just about every racer was ready at the Start. The first to take off into space was Tomas Lednik, and in the strong wind he was immediately pulled directly up avove the Start. In the following wave of starters, not all were as succesful, and some even were thrown about the runway in undignified cartwheels by the wind.

    Those who were able to take off didn't have any problem catching the strong wind and soon a large group of racers were on course.



    In the gradually strengthening wind and turbulence the day belonged to those who started on time. A strenuous battle with the strengthening southwest wind and a clattering canopy with a fully-floored speed awaited the others.




    "I was cussing so loud it must have been heard all the way to the ground", Marcel Konecny described his problems with his, for the third time, snapped speedbar cord. The "Speed System" became a life-important matter in these conditions. Some racers measured a windspeed of over 11 m/s in open space on their GPS instruments and several of them were even hopelessly backed over the crest by the strong wind. Fortunately without any damages to health incurred.




    At 16:33 the first group of three racers finally appeared above the goal and with differences of one second flew one by one over the goal line. The fastest of them was Michal Orolin, closely followed by Tomas Lednik and Peter Hvorka third. THree minutes later a Slovenian reacer flew over the goal, and in two more minutes the Czech duo of MIrek "Radar" Stehula and Frantisek Pavlousek. Overall, 11 racers reached the goal on this windy day.




    Some air-cooled favorites, who will remain unnamed, were so overheated from their battle with the wind element, that immediately upon landing they needed additional cooling with cold water.




    And because among the racers who successfully reached the goal, Mirek "Radar" Stehula wasn't missing, just as on the previous days, his lead in the number one position in the overall placing jumped to 254 points over the second in position, Franta Pavlousek and even up to 469 points over the third place Marcel Konecny. Because the evening evaluation of the negatives that had been photographed over the last three days showed serious shortcomings in photographing the turning points, and this even by some of the favorites, the overall placement will evidently undergo interesting changes tomorrow. Already during the evening klobasa roast and smoking of the strawberry water pipe, some pilots wrung their hands in unpleasant forethoughts of hard cuts coming.