December 06, 2007
Short race, fast Bollinger
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The 5th day of the Challenge dawned with uncertain weather conditions due to a layer of cloud which covered the island and stretched as far as the eye could see. With little sun to warm the terrain, it seemed that thermal activity would be limited, so the Organization opted for a short task: one and a half hours for a 4-point circuit of about 20km following the main inland ridge and the coastal one. The first waypoint was the Las Manchas reservoir near Jedey; then the chapel of Santa Cecilia which today had a radius of 1000m for safety reasons; third was the Tennis Club on the hill up from Puerto Naos, and finally the beach at El Remo.

When the window opened at 14h00, nobody moved on the Campanarios launch. Ten minutes went by before anyone took off and to everybody’s surprise thermalled up to cloud-base at 1000m. The sun managed to shine through gaps in the clouds so that conditions improved in some places; the trick was to maintain height soaring the coastal ridge and do the points without sinking in the shadier areas.

Hans Bollinger broke away from the start and flew fast, only pausing to climb when it was absolutely necessary; thus he managed to keep ahead of the Valic brothers and then fight off a challenge for the lead from Charles Cazaux. “We didn’t expect such good conditions; it was a good flight and quite fast”, he explained. Charles, who was at the last waypoint with Bollinger, finished only 400m behind him and ahead of the Valics, who had to settle for 3rd and 4th place for the first time in the Final. Aljaz was sure he would tie with Urban in this task, since they were wingtip to wingtip on the last glide along the coastal ridge “to compare gliders”. Could it be that there’s a difference between them?

Stéphane Drouin finished fifth today, although he hopes to climb up in the ranks in what’s left of the comp. “Today went well, I did most of the race with Charles but some twenty minutes before it finished I got stuck above the chapel and lost time. I finished about 3km behind the Valics. Now I’m only waiting for Hausi to make a mistake to overtake him in the ranking, as he is only some 5 or 6km in front” he said, half joking.

In the 2nd category, Christophe Lombard managed to keep his advantage and even increase it by 4 km ahead of Daniel Crespo, second in this class. The landing today, with a bonus of 2 km, was once again a real display of gliders and acrobatics over the beach in Puerto Naos.
There are only two days left of the comp to decide the winners of the great Desafio prizes!

Task 3, Tuesday 4th December
A great day and even better for the Valics

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The third task unfolded this afternoon in the best possible conditions in La Palma, with very little wind and a north eastern breeze, few clouds with base at 1250m, and good climbing possibilities. For this reason, the Organisation set a slightly longer circuit with two waypoints in altitude, so that it would be again necessary to climb towards the two higher waypoints towards the mountains during the two and a half hour task.

The race, some 47 km, started like every day with the start point at the tower in El Remo at 14h45. From there, the pilots had to direct themselves towards the rock in Puerto Naos, to then come back via the chapel of St. Cecilia, and back to the north towards the small volcano in Todoque -which lies north of Puerto Naos- with the circuit ending in Las Indias on the south, where they started the circuit again.

At the beginning of the race, the head group was led by Hans Bollinger and the Valic brothers, despite being closely followed by the others. Nevertheless, from the waypoint at the chapel, a first group separated and was able to climb before the rest and continue at an accelerated rhythm. Urban and Aljaz as always, flew very close together although Aljaz was able to take the lead of a couple of km over his brother, with Stéphane Drouin, Charles Cazaux and Bollinger slightly behind, after having completed the circuit more than twice. The rest of the field were left far behind; Bruce Goldsmith 8 km from the leading group, with Toni Bender and Daniel Crespo 5 km after him.

The rapid brothers are only at 500 metres difference in the rankings and it’s obvious that they won’t stop competing with each other for the first place until the end of the final. “The flight was very good, with good conditions for a task that had been well set; I had a really good time” said Urban upon landing.

For Charles Cazaux, it was a good day too and he may well have overtaken Iván Colás for third place in the ranking. “The start of the race was a little tricky but then we managed to climb higher. I only had a low point towards Todoque but after that I was always over 500m. It has been a great day and flying with the Valic’s is good training as they really push quite hard on the accelerator, they go very fast and their paragliders race well.”

The hardest part of the day was finding the necessary altitude to be able to reach the higher waypoints when the clouds left some places well in the shade. In this section there was a slightly difficult part and various pilots from the first ten classified, found themselves in a jam, as did Iván Colás who believes he may have lost more than 30km, Jean Marc Malhonda and Cecilio Valenzuela.

In the DHV2 category, the task again started at odds, although finally it was between two of them; the local tandem pilot Christophe Lombard (FR, Nova Ra) and Daniel Crespo who flew together throughout the first part to then split in Todoque, where Daniel then managed to distance himself and take a 4km lead.

The task finished at 16h45 and the bonus at landing (an extra 3km) opened at 5pm, with the majority of the participating pilots covering the beach at Puerto Naos with gliders and manoeuvrings before entering or trying for the bull’s eye on the beach. A real show!!

Task 2, Monday 3rd December.
One up on difficulty


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With a much better weather forecast than yesterday – the east wind had dropped considerably and a possible ceiling of 1400m, the 2nd task of the Final started at 14h15 from the Campanarios launch. The aim was not just to speed up and down the coastal ridge, but that pilots would have to thermal inland to a higher and trickier waypoint. Start point opened at 14h45 on a circuit of 4 waypoints: first Jedey Mountain just below take-off; second, the Rock on Puerto Naos beach; then the little church of Santa Cecilia; and finally la Caldereta, further south. A circuit of 21km in total, which could be lapped as many times as possible in the two and a half hour time limit.
After the start point opened and all through the first lap, a leading group headed by World Champion Bruce Goldsmith (Airwave FR4) forged ahead, until Spanish pilot Cecilio Valenzuela (Axispara Mercury) managed to overtake, though Aljaz Valic would end up winning with 86,3 km. According to his brother, Urban, first in the overall ranking, today’s conditions were much better, permitting a more interesting task than the first one. “Today we flew very fast in the Puerto Naos area, but then we had to thermal to gain height and it wasn’t possible to accelerate much; it was a rather more difficult circuit”. This time it was the elder Valic brother who flew furthest, though only managing 100m or 200m more than the pilots chasing him, Bruce and Urban; while Charles Cazaux, Hans Bollinger (the two flying Gin Boomerang 5) and Stephan Drouin (Mac Para Magus5) ended some 3 km behind.
The beginning of the task was rather pot luck, areas in the shade offered little chance to climb, while pilots in other spots made cloud base. Thus some pilots found themselves really low when the task started, then wasted precious time climbing and lost the lead group. This happened to Iván Colán (Axispara Mercury, third in the Open ranking until yesterday) who didn’t manage to catch up with today’s leaders. “I hit a couple of bad spots that made me lose at least 8 km so it hasn’t been a very good day for me” he said.
The French-Tenerifian pilot Jean-Marc Malhonda (Axispara Mercury) had trouble climbing after the waypoint at the chapel of St Cecilia and fell roughly 8km behind the leading group.
For local pilot Yves Jouanisson (Nova Ra), and competitor in the DHV2 category, the task was well set even though things didn’t work out so well for him personally since he lost time and height at the first waypoint. The second group left close together with all of them fighting for first place but after going past the chapel they spread out and it was Guillermo de Armas (Ozone Addict) who took the lead temporarily, to be overtaken finally by Daniel Crespo (Sky Antea), who finished first in his group.
Towards the end of the task, the conditions changed and an easterly wind began to enter on the ridge of Puerto Naos, upon which the Organisation immediately decided to stop the task and for security reasons asked pilots to land. Since there were only a few minutes left till the end of the task, the only thing pilots really lost out on was the landing bonus (today an extra 3km). The majority of the competitors landed on the beach in El Remo with no problems, making the most of the great sea views to have a beer before being brought back to Puerto Naos.

 December 02, 2007
VIDEO: 1st Task. See videos section.

December 01, 2007
A tight first race: The Valic brothers and Iván Colás defend their rankings


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The final of the La Palma Challenge started today, Saturday at 2pm when the first task opened in the Campanarios launch and the pilots started to fly towards the start point. The race: a closed circuit of roughly 20 km following the coast line with 3 way points, started at 14:45. Pilots had 2 hours to do the circuit as many times as possible.
Strong conditions at the start challenged pilots. Swiss Hans Bollinger overcame a couple of collapses but then accelerated the rhythm to remain in the second group. Whilst the Valic brothers didn’t let up on the accelerator throughout the whole race, flying close together to finish ahead having completed almost four rounds of the circuit, Spanish champion Iván Colás (currently 3rd in the general ranking) was never far behind. Breathing down their necks, came a group containing Charles Cazaux, Goyo Gonzalez Oliva, Hans Bollinger and Bruce Goldsmith amongst others. Faced with challenging conditions, some pilots preferred to land but those who continued confirmed that the conditions soon improved enabling them to follow with ease the coastal ridge between Puerto Naos and the Caldereta.
A bonus added excitement to the end of the task when pilots had the chance to win two extra kilometres for entering a way point at the landing site during a five-minute window which opened twenty minutes after the end of the task. A cloud of paragliders circled above the beach, many then landing on the bull’s eye prepared for them, to the thunderous applause of the thrilled spectators watching from the promenade.
For today’s winner Aljaz Valic, who finished some 200 metres ahead of his brother Urban, it was a great race and good training though he prefers not to commit himself as to the results, since “there are many days of competition ahead, things can change and there are about 8 very good pilots who are fast”. He says the Island is very interesting because it is small, “but you come across varied conditions, sometimes very strong in some places, less so in others, which is really nice for training, especially at winter”.