From the same starting point below Monte Grappa's peak we notice that the inversion layer at our altitude, just under 1600 meters above sea level, has become thicker compared to yesterday. Around noon cirrus cloud cover, at first thin and then increasingly thicker, starts covering the sky. From the starting point the planned discipline leads to Costalunga, Punta Musce, Tortima, Bacowka and as usual to the goal in Semonza. The total distance of this race to goal is 56km.

    Most of the pilots gather at the starting marker at Punta Musce where they wait for the opening of the starting window in an atmosphere of true chaos. There are several groups taking off from here, and each are going in a different direction. After a while I've had enough of the bustle. Somewhat underestimating the strength of the wind blowing from the west, I set off from the marker at an altitude roughly 100 meters below the lead group. As I near one of the ridges jutting out from the main ridge, I start to realize that I'm going to miss that height dearly. The canopy practically stops making headway against the strengthening wind, there's a truly long ravine in the windless part of the ridge, and the GPS ridicules me with data on the resulting glide ratio of 1:1. The entire lead group flew above the ridge, so they have long disappeared in the distance. But I ultimately succeed in forcing my way to the windy side of the ridge just above the floor, and then plane off for more than thirty minutes before managing to lift myself up a bit.

    That's followed by a jump over another ridge, where I finally hit a thermal. It's clear that there's no way I can make up the time I've lost so I try to at least make it to the goal in the worsening conditions. I ultimately succeed, however, placing 25th in the round naturally means the loss of yesterday's medal position. On the other hand, things went great for Karel, who lands at the goal 8th only a short while after the winner.

    The organizers calculate the results in record time, which means we can begin the party for announcing the results at around 8 p.m. The excellent pilot Aljaz Valic from Slovenia was the overall winner, the native Italian Federico Nevastro secured second place with his perfect knowledge of the local conditions, and Rafal Luckos came in third overall and was named Poland's champion. Karel came in sixth with his Magus, my Addiction carried me to seventh, and Martin Pacejka ended in 32nd place overall.

    Considering the amount of wine available at the party we were a little concerned about repeat complaints from the local residents, so after consuming a negligible number of liters of red wine and singing several Polish hit songs with the others, our team gets in the car and heads from sunny Italy to sunny France, namely to the small French town of Laragne-Monteglin in Provence, where the next important competition - British Open - is set to take place the day after tomorrow.