And the winners are...
Christian Maurer starts like last year !
First competition, first position on the podium !
The second is tomas Brauner, and Martin Orlik is third.
After a difficult start, Ewa Wiesnierska finally comes to the first position, followed by Karin Appenzeller and Noriko Mizunuma.
Mac Para is the winning team, followed by Advance and Gin Factory Team.
For the World Cup ranking, Christian Maurer is first, Andy Aebi second and Tomas Brauner third.
In World Cup women ranking, Ewa is first, Keiko is second and Karin third...
Tonight, the pilots will enjoy the Tour 2005 DVD premiere before the prize giving ceremony, and a big concert organized in Castelo.
Saturday, March 25th : Rudi Untermoser wins the task
Last task in Brazil... with a 53km race.
Most pilots are reaching goal today (116 out of 124)... finally !!
Rudi Untermoser is the fastest, followed by Olympio Faissol and Stefan Wyss. Petra Krausova is the first woman, Ewa Wiesnierska is second and Keiko Hiraki third.
Friday, March 24th : Paul Schmit wins the task
Paul Schmit wins the 55km race today with Christian Maurer second and Mathias roten third.
Anja Kroll is the first and only woman in goal. Eliane Ueltschi and Martina Pospisilova land a few kilometer before reaching goal.
Thursday, March 23th : Andi Aebi wins again !
Hard task today... no pilot is able to reach goal locate at 54.2km.
Andi Aebi reaches 48km and wins the task, with Christian Maurer landing just 200m behind him.
Keiko Hiraki reaches 46km and get the 13th place in the task.
Wednesday, March 22th : Andi Aebi wins the task
Humidity is decreasing... task length is increasing !
Without risk of thunderstorm, the task is a 65 km race going first to Castelo, then to the south-west with a final leg of 11 km back to the goal. The conditions at take off are perfect allowing everybody to be airborne in 15 mn even if the "Uba" take off is not very big. The procedure at take off allows to avoid confusion . The top 15 male and top 3 female of both the World Cup ranking 2005 and the competition ranking have priority. Very fast, after 2 mn, the top 30 and all other female pilots can go. Then , the top 50 , the top 80 , the top 100. Smoothly, everybody is turning over hills and rocks waiting for the start opening, 45 minutes after window opening.
In the air, the conditions are weaker than the previous day. Some pilots land very soon near Castelo. Even the multi titled Hans Bollinger is going back early to the headquarters where he can enjoy the goyava, passion fruit or cotopaxi fruit juices ! And maybe the beer ... The pilots are struggling most of the time with suddenly an inexpected good lift. Patrick Bérod is leading the pack with a gaggle of 30 after him. Like many, he's landing a few kms short of goal. Andy Aebi, a swiss newcomer in the World Cup is winning the task with Helmut Eichholzer right behind. The previous day winner Frank Brown is again making goal with only a few centimeters over the line. The 2005 PWCA World Champion, Christian Maurer, is the last in goal. With two pilots in goal, Advance is winning the team result of the day. Ewa Wiesnierska with 61.2 km wins in front of Petra Krausova (55 km) but Karin Appenzeller, third with 50.6 km, takes the overall lead with almost 500 points ahead of Anja Kroll !
Today, nobody was attacked by a bull, like Martin Brunn yesterday ! He managed to escape in a real spanish torero style, just by throwing his ballast to the beast. Martin announced at the briefing that he will stop his paragliding career to start a new job as torero in the area of Sevilla. All pilots wish him a good luck in his new life !
Tuesday, March 21th : Frank Brown wins the task
Second task... second race... 57.7km
Blue sky again this morning, but still a lot of humidity. A big cumulo-nimbus was close the launch area, giving some rain, but not close enough to cause major troubles.
The race goes on, with two groups reaching the goal. The first one encounters some problem while getting close to goal as some low hill is between them and the goal line. Many of these pilot are too low to jump over that last hill and land before reaching the goal line.
Frank Brown is the first pilot in goal, followed by Frederico Nevastro and Martin Orlik. the first woman reaching goal is Noriko Mizunuma, Karin Appenzeller is second and Keiko Hiraki is third.
Monday, March 20th : Greg Blondeau wins the first 2006 task
After a full day of rain, the sky has more blue than grey and white...
All the pilots are moving to the main launch, for the first race of the tour 2006.
This first task starts from Castelo main launch, then goes for a turnpoint nearby, then back to the launch and finally go straight to the goal 37km away, for a total distance of more than 47km.
Many pilot are having trouble with the humidity caused by the past days of rain and the weak thermal conditions. A huge group lands cannot make it back to the launch and forces them to land below the launch. Less than half of the pilots are able to come back to the launch for their second turnpoint.
Only 16 pilots are finally reaching goal. Greg Blondeau if first, followed by Peter Vrabec and Jens Kierdorf. Anja Kroll is the only woman in goal, in 7th position, congratulations ! Noriko Mizunuma lands less than 5km before goal.
Sunday, March 19th : rain... no task
A lot of rain all day long... no task today
Task 1 Official results :