Clement Latour comes in second – and is ecstatic. Photo: Sebastian Marko / Red Bull Content Pool
Issue 149 of Cross Country magazine features post-race interviews with some of the pilots who chased Chrigel Maurer as hard as they could through this year’s classic race.
In an exclusive in-depth interview Chrigel himself gives us a brilliant insight into how he flies:
After I get to the top, I go into ‘glide’ mode, and try to fly as efficiently as possible, finding the best line, flying at the best speed with my speedbar, and trimming my wing. Then when I come across lift, I try to analyse whether it’s strong enough to turn or not. If it is, I switch directly into ‘thermalling’ mode – if it’s not, I continue straight.
As well as Chrigel we feature some of the leading pilots, who tell us about their race and why it hurts so good:
Clement Latour
In my opinion, Chrigel was untouchable in flight … He flies, he lands, he flies, he lands. It’s pure efficiency … If I had imagined coming second at the start? No, seriously!
Antoine Gerard
Ten minutes before the start I was limping. The race doctor came to see me and gave me an antibiotic cream because he said I had an infection
Jon Chambers
I thought I’d scrape through and end up near Andermatt, but instead I surfed up the side of an enormous convergence cloud which took me all the way to the Furka Pass without a single 360 in a thermal. It was just amazing.
Aaron Durogati
It is hard, it can be really dangerous and you fly close to your limits. That there are no injuries is a blessing. I fell asleep in the air after using my night pass
Martin Muller
Suddenly I saw an eagle whistle past, shave the slope, then suddenly open its wings. He was trying to catch a small chamois. Its mother was there but the eagle was twice her size.
The full 12-page article is in Cross Country 149. Out now in print and digital.
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