Hi there, everybody. Welcome to a very special episode of the Cloudbase Mayhem. The Red Bull X-Alps starts tomorrow morning. It is right now 6 p.m. my time over in Europe. So we've got about, let's see, what is that, 12, 15, 16 hours until the start of the best race on earth, in my opinion. And I went around the athlete camp today, spent all day talking to a whole bunch of the teams, and in some cases, their supporters, Rich Benstead, Tommy Friedrich, Tom de Dorlodot, James Elliott, Damien Lacaze, Tanguy Renaud-Goud, and his supporter, Tim Roches from Team Nivea, good buddies of mine, Marcus Anders, Celine Lorenz, Aaron Durogati, Nicola Danini, Lennart Oblak, who is an Olympian biathlete and showed how strong he was in the prologue.
Amazing athlete. Amazing athlete. Logan Walters and my former supporter, and now Logan's supporter, and very good friend, Rebbe Stephen Gray. So we talk weather, the route, all the additional places that they can't land, the very kind of, the difficulty of the German leg this year because of the, they can only use official DHV launches between Kimsey and Lermus, and we talk a lot about what people's anxieties are and fears are, and, you know, how anxious they are to get this thing going and training, and we talk to the veterans and a whole bunch of the rookies and find out how they're feeling as they're this close to the race. It was a lot of fun. This was a blast, and it's been fun to be a part of this in kind of a different way, and I think it'll be interesting to hear all these voices right before one of the biggest adventures they'll ever have.
So, enjoy this special bonus episode with a whole bunch of fun. And a whole bunch of the teams going into the Red Bull X-Alps. Cheers.
Check, check, check, check, check.
Aaron, less than 24 hours. How are you feeling? I feel good.
Actually, still a lot of things to do before tomorrow start, but I'm actually looking forward to start because now it's, the day before is the day where you still, yeah, think about many things and what I can prepare better and whatever. And from tomorrow on, it's going to be just hike and fly, so. It's just going good. You had a pretty rough week last year, or last week. You were laid flat. You got pretty sick after the Worlds. Yeah, actually, already the last two tasks on the Worlds, I was quite sick. Not terrible sick, but enough to not feel really good. And then on the way back home from France, I got really sick, and I lay two days in the bed. I had to take antibiotics to make it.
Yeah, faster recovery. So, yeah, today it's Saturday. I still will have to take two more antibiotics, and tomorrow I stop it. Then you'll be perfect. Yeah. It didn't seem to affect you too badly in the prologue. Man, you're strong. It was good. I mean, I started the race really chill. I was just walking over the starting arch, and then everyone was really running fast. I was thinking, maybe either everyone becomes Superman, or I don't think they can hold this piece forever. So, actually, after a little while, I also started jogging in the flat part, but I really didn't want to push on the flat.
And once it started to get a little bit more uphill, I definitely pushed. You turned on the afterburners. Yeah, and I felt okay. A little bit burning lungs, but not too bad. So, I think also the other wasn't pushing, like, full, full power, but I was really happy to be one of the top guys at the first turn point. Yeah, and I think in this race, having that extra night pass is going to be maybe important. Nice to have as a padding. Yeah, definitely. I don't know when I can use it, actually, but I think the most cool thing about it is that I have it.
Yeah, sure. So, yeah. The main thing I wanted to ask you is the team. When we spent time together at the ex-Red Rocks this fall, the last night you and I were talking, you said you're going to change it this year, and you're not going to have pilots on the team, and you're going to make more of the decisions yourself. Big adjustment. Most of the pilots fly with, or most of the athletes have pilots on their teams. Is that what you ended up doing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's basically Andrea. Yeah, it's this very good friend from me, from my home place. He's starting flying now. Ah, okay. It's now the first two days of training here. Nice. But otherwise, he's quite good in driving, and many, many other things.
And then it's Bruno and Fede, which are two mountain guides. Okay, cool. And they fly down. Yep. They fly on the P. Yeah, okay. So the decisions are on you this time. Yeah, yeah. You're going to be deciding through the test. 12 days, where to go, where to launch, what the route is. Yeah, definitely. Bruno has also a little bit of an idea, but the point is that I want to take the decision this time. Okay. I don't have anyone which will do a real strategy for me, for sure. Bruno at least has the knowledge. If I'm going to ask him for a takeoff and tell him, look, I'm here, or he will see anyway from the live tracking, he can give me like a takeoff. Yep. But in general, weather, strategy, and... Yeah. This I will have to do by myself.
Yeah. I just saw you doing the gentleman from Bern Airs here. What are you using for tech this time around?
Basically, as you know, I'm not really good with technology, and finally he came here, so I kind of understood a bit how this application works. And this application, it's quite amazing. You can have actually everything there. Weather forecast. You can routing. You have the live tracking on it. And I use it a bit in the past months, checking out the weather, because I would not have also a weatherman on the competition. Yeah. I will just check the Bern Air map by myself, and just standard meteo blue and soaring meteo. Yeah. And with this, I'm going to take my decision, yeah.
Okay. How has your preparation this time for your sixth different? How is it different from previous editions, other than a big change in the team? Yeah. Let's say it was a tough winter, so it might be I'm a little bit less fit than normally, because, yeah, I got sick really often this last winter. So I miss maybe comparing other years, the base, which I build up in the winter. Yeah. With the really long things. I did it. Yeah. But I was also kind of three weeks sick. So I lost a little bit of time because of that. But otherwise, I'm since actually six, seven years, I don't prepare X-Alps in a particular way.
Oh. I just prepare myself for my life. You're just living. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm anyway training a lot. Yeah.
And I
don't do any specific thing for X-Alps, you know. Yeah. I mean, in a way, yes, but it's just like that I try. I mean, it's not I try. I do some more long things for the X-Alps and then during the summer where it comes this shorter race. And for example, then by the end of the summer, the Dolomiten one, I adjust my training with some more interval section. And yeah. But it's nothing really focused on X-Alps. You told me something at the X-Red Rocks that blew me away. One of the days was a big vertical day and you got to the top before everybody else as you did every day and you weren't even sweating. There was no drops of water on your face.
I would be just soaked moving. Not that I can move that fast, but if I was trying to move that fast and you said you have a very interesting hydration system. Can you tell everybody about what you do there? Well, it's just that I don't drink.
So there's no water to sweat.
I know when I'm on the X-Alps, Bruno, it's all the time giving me to drink. But like when I'm by myself, I have a half a liter.
Amazing. And you've been training this way for you said six, seven years. Yeah, maybe longer. Wow. I mean, I, you know, like I like to look at the weight of the things. And you don't want to carry a half kilo of water.
I mean, I'm not one kilo, so I take half a kilo. Yeah, amazing. Aaron, best of luck. I'm really excited to watch you in this one. I think you're really hitting your prime and you've had a big year. Pakistan and the worlds and the Superfinal and a bunch of hike and fly and the Dolomiti. And I think it's your year, man. Good luck. Thank you very much, Kevin. Always a
pleasure. Thanks.
How
are you? Hi, Celine. Hi. Are you excited? I'm super excited and nervous. I bet you're nervous. It's hard as a rookie, isn't it? You don't know what you don't know yet. No, but I'm really looking forward to that. How is your ankle? My ankle is getting better and better every day. Yeah, it's a little surprise every morning. A different color. Yeah, that's good. But less blue, less purple. Yeah. What did you do? You sprained it or yes, on the shooting for the. For the Red Bull. After all the months. Yeah. For the pre-shooting. We wanted to make a nice shot and I twisted my ankle. Your your background is acro. Yes. In the very beginning, I was just playing acro.
Okay. Where are you from? I'm from Germany, from the south part. Okay. From the Alps. In the Alps. Yeah. Like here. I mean. Yeah. Yes.
I was born in Garmisch near Lermos. It must be your local site. Yeah. Okay. I was born there. And when I was ten years old, we moved to Chiemsee. Okay. And we I was living there on a hut in the mountains with my mom and my sister. This is sister. Yeah. And I grew up there on the mountain. And I also learned flying there around Chiemsee. Many of you, Paul, Andra, there's quite a few acro pilots here. Who have kind of made the switch. When did you make the switch to XC? Are you still more of an XC pilot or an acro pilot? Now I'm way more XC pilot before. Just get out of the wind here a little bit. Yeah.
Now I'm more XC pilot than acro pilot. Okay. I made the switch after I had an accident with my ex-boyfriend. He died when we did a hike and fly together. And he was my acro. Buddy, we were flying synchro together and we did everything. And afterwards, I couldn't really enjoy flying acro anymore because there was something missing. And that's why I kind of stopped. I tried to get back to it. But when you want to stop, you really need to practice a lot, a lot, a lot to get back into the level you have been. So, yeah. I'm sorry to hear that, Celine. That's a tough story. Tough life.
Yeah. That's so easy. And how long ago was that? It was 2019. Okay. So that was about when you started flying XC. Yeah. Yeah. I would imagine the acro background really helps you, especially for an event like this, when the weather isn't so good or things are a little bit dicey. I was talking to your supporters when you were coming into the goal and the prologue and they were saying what a competent pilot you are. Because it was getting pretty big. The skies were getting really big. And I said, is this going to make her nervous? And they said, nah, she's fine. She's used to this. She's good at that.
Is fear much of a, is that playing much of a role as you go into this fear of the conditions of the weather? Is that a thing with you or no, so not so much? I think I wouldn't say it's fear. I have a lot of respect of the weather thing because, yeah, it's a lot of power and all that.
But I wouldn't say it's fear. It's more respect. And when I feel that feeling of, well, I'm super focused and I really, yeah. But I wouldn't say I'm scared. What is the greatest source of anxiety, if you will, at this stage? What are you most worried about with the next 12 days? Yeah, for sure, my ankle. That I cannot really push as much as I want because of that. And my fitness, I cannot compare my fitness to the others. That's what I really know.
And that's, yeah, the weather also. It's not really helping. Yeah. I'm really counting on my flying. Right. Yeah. So let's see what this will bring. Yeah, yeah.
Your team, how did you assemble your team?
How did you
put it together? It's a lot of logistics. Yes. But yeah, I have three guys on my team. Yeah. One is Jakob. It's my main supporter. I know him from flying tandem together in Garmisch. Yeah. And we are super good friends. And we did a lot of hiking flights together. And yeah, we can be both in a shit mood. But we also know afterwards it's all fine again and we can love together. Nice. So I think that's a good base for being in like in a super stressed environment.
And the second one is Franzi. He's also from Garmisch. Yeah. And I'm living in his parents house underneath the roof. And I know him from there. And he's also a super good friend now. And he's really having a good vibe and he's good for the organizing in the van. And yeah. And then Tim, he's I know him from Kimsey. And he's a really good. And he's good in flying and he's also good in photography. And yeah, it's also it's working well. Yeah, very well. So your whole team is very familiar with this area that I don't think the fans understand very much because I didn't even tell very recently. But the leg between Kimsey and Lermus is one that has been in many of the editions.
But there's this new thing where you can't fly unless it's from a DHV approved launch. Which makes that leg much, much different. There are launches through that zone. If you take the north or the more direct line to Lermus and stay kind of north side of the Massif going in. But if you bomb, that's a hard place to walk. Yeah. And there's not huge distances, but there's distances between the launches. And then some of the launches aren't going to be oriented correctly for the Bavarian winds coming in. Yeah. I haven't asked anybody this yet, but you'd be a good one to ask because you know the area so well. Do you have a plan A, a plan B, a plan C? What are we going to see through there? Are people going to take the in-valley or are they going to go direct and hope for the best? I think if it's good flying, everyone would prefer the in-valley.
Because for sure there's the airspace around Innsbruck, which can be tricky with the CTR. And if you come low, you need to land.
But I think it's the higher mountains. It's more race. It's
a nice
route because this year you also don't need to go around the Zugspitze. It's a big change. You don't have to be on the north side. I think the people would prefer the in-valley this year. So fly the in-valley and then take one of the spine routes on the south side of the Zugspitze and then you're in. Yeah. I think it's when it's good flying. That airspace has always made me very nervous because it's big. It's a CTR. Yeah. But you're allowed to come. If you stay very close to the terrain, if you're bombing out, it's okay, right? You can come in underneath it. Yeah, you can. For landing, it's good. But the rule this year is that if you enter the CTR, you straight have to go land. So you don't get a penalty if you enter the CTR. You just need to land. You have to land. You can't keep going. No.
You are not allowed to glide and use the valley breeze to go further. You can't just stay under 300. No. You're done. Yeah. Okay. And if you don't show that, obviously, in your track, you're going to get the airspace. Yeah. Okay. I didn't know that. Interesting. Well, we have the ankle. Anything else?
There's a lot going into this, is there? Yes. We're less than 24 hours now. Are you just, fuck it. Let's go. Let's do it. Let's get this thing going. Yeah. For me, it's like, oh, I really want to just go and that it's finally starting to happen. More than the last six months was just, except here, except there, this, this, that. It's so much. Recognizing, searching for sponsors, everything was just around that. And now it's such a long, like here in the pre-week, it's super nice with all the athletes. But it's also like, how do you say when the horses are? Yes. Let's go. Yes. Yes. You just want to go and then it's starting. Yeah. Well, we're not long now. No. I wish you the best of luck. Have a wonderful adventure with your team.
Thank you. And I'll see you out there on course line. Yes. Hopefully, we'll be flying with you quite a bit, hopefully. Yeah. It'll be cool. Thanks for your time. Thank you. Awesome.
I am talking to Damien Lacaze, always smiling. How are you, bud? Hello. I'm fine. Thank you. A bit excited now, but ready to start. It's a bit long to stay here for one week and waiting for the next. It's a lot of anticipation, isn't it? Yeah. I always had a hard time with this week. Just come on, let's just do it. Let's do it. How do you feel this time compared to your rookie year last year or two years ago? My feeling is much more. Yeah. Much less stressed. Okay. Two years ago, I didn't sleep at all, four days before the start. It was crazy. I was exhausted before starting, and now it's better. Yeah. I sleep well.
I keep calm. I enjoy time with my team. I chill here. Now it's a good mood for me, and I hope my precedent experience will help me to do better. You've had a lot of really big mountain experience with expeditions with Antoine that we talked about in the podcast a couple years ago. How do you think that that helps you in races like this, just that experience? I don't know if it helps a lot, but yeah, in the mountain, I'm like at home, like in my home. You know? You understand it.
Yeah. It makes sense. I mean, the terrain you understand. Yeah,
it's a
normal area. It's not impressive for me. So that's a good way to feel good. Yeah. But my alpine experience, I think, my alpine experience don't help me a lot. Look at Maxime. He's not a mountaineer at all. Yeah. And he's in two or three years. He learned a lot about that. And now it's better than me in mountains. You know, you've been doing other hike and fly races, though, and quite well. And also you have quite a bit of comp experience in there. This has been an interesting debate. You know, someone like Paul Gucherbauer doesn't really fly many competitions, but he does really well in this event. Chrigel had obviously in his past done a ton.
Maxime, lots. He's one of the best in the world. He's the world champion right now. How much do you think there's crossover? How important is it to know how to fly really fast versus just mountain flying? Yeah, I think comp, to make some competition in high level, it helps a lot to fly fast. And it's very important for the first days when we are all together in goggles and something like that. And it's important, too, when we are alone to increase your flight speed, you know. It's for me. Comp helps me a lot to learn to fly faster. But you can be very strong in I Can Fly 2 without competition like Paul, for example.
Yeah, if you are a good cross country pilot, if you manage to get high all the time, don't make mistakes, it works well, too, yeah. So there is two schools. But I think Maxime is full of speed and don't make many mistakes. And he's very fast in flying.
But you can do very, very good without this race experience, I think. More important to just stay in the air, isn't it? I think in the long run as to sometimes you have to fly slow. Yeah, on a short run like Born to Fly in France, yeah, it's very important to not make mistakes because it's over. If you land quickly or something like that. And very important to fly fast without mistakes. So on the short run, maybe it's more important than the X-Alps. Do you have an overriding goal, an achievement, something you want to get out of the race? Yeah, I have two. Okay. First is to spend an amazing...
Sorry, lots of good times with my team. And like two years ago, keep smiling even in the hard moments. And the second is to see Dallanzi because yesterday, two years ago, I missing it. Not many did. Yeah, for one day, for 100K, maybe because of my penalty, I don't know. But this year, I want to see the goal. Yes. Damien, good luck. We'll be watching you and you look very prepared and confident and I can't wait to watch you race. Thank
you very
much. Thanks, bud.
That would be good as a background.
noise is the crackle of the bacon. That's totally Canadian. Well, and everybody loves bacon. We learned that in Pulp Fiction.
Okay, I'm with Team Canada. James, good to see you, man. We had some fun stories last night. We're 24 hours out. How are you feeling?
Yeah, thanks, Gavin. Super stoked to be here. Feeling excited, nervous, 12 days. It's a massive, massive challenge. I think we're prepared, but you never really know until you're actually in it. Yeah, you don't know until
you don't know what you don't know yet, do you?
Exactly. As a rookie team.
What has you most concerned, I guess, if you will, or scared or most anxious about the next 12 days?
Where do I start?
We have a litany going on.
No. I think we're pretty good. We have a big support team. We've got a lot of brains on the ground, which is by design. I'm playing on European turf. It's really a European sport, so I wanted to have as much backup and support as possible. Ultimately, obviously, the decision-making comes down to me in the air, and those minute-by-minute, second-by-second decisions translate into many kilometers on the ground. So, I'm hoping that I can make the right call in unfamiliar terrain and unfamiliar conditions, unfamiliar valley winds, and make solid calls that I'm happy with to get me along the course line. So, right now, as mentioned, it's just a lot of the unknown, but I think that we've done everything we can to prepare.
There's never enough
time, is there?
No. No, no. I mean, we could spend months researching a course. You know, scouting individual locations, individual turnpoints, but ultimately, it really depends on the day, you know, what the weather's going to be like for that particular site.
So, yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot to wrap your mind around. You're
one of the athletes, in my mind, that our mutual trainer, Ben Abruzzo, has trained you, and he has talked about that, you know, you're unlike many of the athletes here. You've got a very serious job. You've got a family. A lot of the athletes have families, but many of them are professional pilots. This is what they do 24-7. You've had to juggle a lot to get ready for this. What has that looked like? I saw a lot of pretty crazy posts on Instagram and postholing. Yeah. We don't have very favorable conditions for flying in the winter in Canada.
Yeah, exactly. And that's just it. So, a lot of the winter was physical prep. Working with Ben, he had a very detailed, as you know, extremely detailed training program. That I was following as much as possible. It required a lot of creativity in terms of scheduling and planning, where I could fit it into my schedule. A lot of early mornings, some late nights, trying to fit the volume of training in there during the high-volume weeks. And then, lately, I've transitioned to more flying. So, I recently got the advanced gear that I'll be racing for the X-Alps and became familiar with that.
So, yeah, it's really a challenge coming from North America. Not just Canada, but North America, I think, in general. It's definitely a challenge. But the physical prep-wise, I don't know if I could have done any more. I really, with the creativity, just maxed it out. What is your job? I run a cosmetic surgery clinic. Okay. On the back end, finance and administration. So, it's serious, but I'm also flexible.
I heard last night, we were telling stories during the X period, you were handling spreadsheets and billing. I don't think a lot of the athletes are doing that kind of thing, James, in the next 12 days.
Yeah, there was some, you know, by side-of-the-road payroll submissions. Let's make a pact
right now, in front of your team, you're not going to do that for the next 12 days, right? You're not going to let these guys handle that?
That's right. If I'm top landing, it's to check the route, not to make a business call. That's a complete issue.
But on that same note, I think that I'm confident in my skills and my training as a pilot. I'm reassured by, you know, the amount of prep I put into it and my flying technique and my flying skill. Even in the prologue. It was nice to see that I'm not at the back of the pack. You know, I'm still kind of in the middle and I say, okay, well, if I could do this full-time, you know, where would I be? So, maybe that's in the future a little bit. This
is just a taste of the
future, right? Is this what I'm hearing? Possibly. Possibly. Well, we'll talk in
12 days.
One of the best pieces of advice, and we'll close on this, but one of the best pieces of advice I got before my first one in 2015. I went through Zurich and sat down with Tom Payne. He was still working at Google. And he's a real map expert. And he was kind of taking us through the course as you've done with him. And he said, how are you guys handling conflict resolution? And because he supported John Chambers in one and then he did the 2009 event himself. And then he supported John Chambers twice. And especially with a big team, there's a lot going on. Mistakes are going to be made. Have you guys talked about that? How will you handle when things go, when they don't go well?
Yeah, team dynamics are definitely a big part of performance overall as a team. You know, there's the old saying, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go as a team. So I think that for us, it's really just about open communication. You know, goal number one is to be safe for us all to be safe, supporters, myself. Rule number two is to have fun. You know, this is a very serious race. But none of us are getting rich off this. It's not our, you know, our day job. So if we weren't having fun, then we wouldn't be here. So I think it's important to keep that in perspective and to make sure that when things come up to just address them openly to, you know, work towards solutions and to involve the whole team.
Ultimately, if we're not enjoying this, if we're not having fun, then what's the point? So, yeah. Does somebody here
have some cat food ready to go?
That's right. Don't be a pussy. Don't be a pussy. That's probably rule number maybe three.
Glad we got that straight. James, thanks a lot. Good luck. You look incredibly fit. There's a lot of smiling people on your team. I think you guys are going to have a blast. Enjoy the adventure.
Thanks, Gavin. Super stoked.
Okay. First up, we're talking to Leonard Oblak, who was in the PyeongChang Olympics for biathlon. And I saw you go up the hill the other day in the prologue, man. You were fast. Yeah. Actually, I felt really good. But, yeah, I learned many things from the prologue. I pushed forward. But then I didn't expect the helicopter above me. And then I just didn't hear the voice from the navigation. Then I got lost once. And then the second time. And then I was really struggling. And then I just need to look at my phone and to find the right path.
And then I need to descend a little bit. And then I just fall into the middle of the group. And, yeah, I just try to push hard as possible. And then I caught Maxim in the front. And I saw that he's really good. And then it's not worth to push forward. Just follow and relax on his back. Yeah, that's it. I mean, that leads us to a really good thing. I remember back in 2015 when I was a rookie. You learned a lot just from the prologue. It's kind of nice to have these little quick races to learn all these things. But you're obviously incredibly fit. And I'm sure you're pretty fired up to get out the gun. But did it kind of set in your mind?
Did you find the sometimes slow is fast? Yeah. Or let's say to do more with your head is sometimes better than just with your legs. Yeah. Where is your head right now? You're about 24 hours from the start. What do you think? I mean, as a rookie, there's a lot of unknowns. Yeah. It's quite an unknown world for me, this race. I have never experienced something like that. So I even don't know what to expect. I just know that physically and mentally I'm really good prepared.
Actually, I didn't prepare, do the preparations. I don't know, something special. It's just my way of life. I train every day. It's in my nature. So, yeah, I know that I can do that in 12 days. I can fight on the ground. I can fly by my own in the air. And, yeah, the goal is just to push, to give everything I have and to fly as I can. You started flying in 2016, you said, but it's been kind of a dream. Your last name means cloud, Oblak. Yeah. That's very cool. Yeah. How does the, I would imagine, biathlon, I've never done any, you know, professional cross country skiing by any means, and I don't even know how to shoot anything.
I've never shot a gun. But I would imagine it's the perfect combo for this kind of thing where you have incredibly high heart rate, going really hard, and then you can just drop it in a second, right? Isn't that what biathlon is all about? Yeah. You know, it's kind of similar here. In biathlon, it consists of, actually, of dynamic and aesthetic. Yeah. And you need to have, let's say, a lot of adrenaline and motivation on the track, and then you need to calm into a minute or even less that you can… Be very precise. …that you could be really precise. And then, again, you need to switch to…
Get back into flow. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I would imagine that really lends perfectly to launching. You know, you've got these incredible climbs day after day, many times, often in one day, and then you can just calm right down and be ready to go. Yeah, yeah. There is, let's say, I know how to do it in biathlon, but I need to learn how to do it here, because I saw on the prologue that the guys are really professionals and really, really fast at the takeoff. Yeah. I saw Chrigel. I
saw him coming
at the takeoff, and once I turned around… He's off. Yeah, he's off. He and Tanguy and Aaron, they're like… Maxime too, they're… They just… The bag's out, the wing's out, and they're off the hill. It's amazing. Exactly. Over and over. And I'm really not used to it, you know? I'm like a free flyer, and when I reach the takeoff, I normally enjoy the view for a few minutes, and then I prepare myself in, let's say, in three, four, or five minutes. But here, you know, in five minutes, they are already on the first turn point. I learned something from Chrigel's coach a few years ago, from Thomas, when I started working with him for the last race, you know, that it's the… They really… They break it down into seconds, you know? Every packing, if you can pack a minute faster than everybody else, then at the end of the day, that's five minutes, six minutes.
And a little bit more glide, that's a half a K. And it's all just… It's adding up over the course of the race. You know, you have to think of it in these little tiny chunks, not getting to Zellum, say. It's the… It's the little bit by bit by bit by bit. And it's… Boy, they've got… They've ironed everything down to the last little thing, haven't they? Yeah, yeah. What are you most nervous about at this point? Or is your Olympic training, you don't really have too much anxiety about it? Yeah, the most nervous about how we will manage to do it as a team. Because, as I said, this is the first edition for all of us. And we don't know… We will learn a lot, I know. Yeah. Yeah, we will see, actually, exactly during the race.
And we will realize after the race what is important and what we missed and where we failed and so on. There's a lot you don't know at this point, but you'll know a lot in 12 days. Yeah, yeah. And you know, in Slovenia, when I became a national champion, I know in Slovenia, every corner, every village under me, everything, you know? Yeah. But here, you are on such a huge place that it's impossible. For me especially, because I'm not so experienced as the other pilots. Yeah, it will be quite an unknown world for me. I get the sense from you that this is maybe the first of many. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
You're planning on this. Yeah, that's the plan. Yeah, I like it. Good luck. Have fun. I was very impressed by your ability to go uphill. I think you're going to be well-suited for this race. Have a good time. Enjoy the adventure. Yeah, thanks. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Leonard.
Team USA1. Oh, yeah. It's a little hard for me to say that. How are you guys doing? Doing good, man. Nice to see you. Nice to see you, guys. Quite well, yeah. I'm happy that I'm remaining on USA1. Ah, yes. You're the
veteran now. And actually, I mean, I think we're technically just Team USA this year. Yeah. Yeah, a little bit.
Only one. So, Revis, Logan, Revis, you've supported me in the last two. How has that helped you get ready for this one? Is that knowledge and information and history really helped set up for this one? Less nervousness and less anxiety, or is it all the same?
Oh, it's huge. In 2019, when I came over for my first race with you, I had never flown in the Alps. I was good at weather forecasting in the States, but it was a massive unknown.
And things worked as I expected and learned a lot from Ben, a lot from you. So, I haven't done it twice. I feel pretty prepared for a third one.
Are you guys using a weather, an outside third party for weather, or are you doing it all on your own? We don't need it. Yeah, we got Revis. He's pretty good. He's really good. Yeah, I like that avenue for sure. How are you feeling? You had a nice prologue. You seem strong. Ben's your trainer as well. I just talked to James across the way and to both you guys. How are you feeling? I mean, I think most people are saying good. I'm saying good. But, yeah, there's nerves.
It's interesting to be on the start line with some really amazing athletes, really amazing pilots. So, yeah, there's a little bit of that, like, you know, just figuring out where we stand, how to make it all work, and excited. What are your strengths, do you feel, like, going into this? Are you playing to your strengths? Are you more worried about the weaknesses? What are you thinking about right now? We're 24 hours out. What are the most… Because as a rookie team, you've got a lot of experience. Your first time. But as a rookie team, there's a lot you don't know. I remember being very nervous about that. Yeah, yeah. The unknowns. Yeah, I think, you know, for us, we've got a lot to think about. And so I'm trying not to think about it. Yeah. How's that going? It's rough, man. Yeah, being surrounded by ex-Alps all the time.
But I love it. You know, just… And strengths, weaknesses, we've got some of both. You know, and I haven't really figured out what our big strength is or what our big weakness is. I'm feeling fit. Ben did an awesome job. I'm, like, body feels good. Sleeping is good. Excited to do more of that. Are there any kind of rules you've set as a team as just kind of, okay, here's the pace we're going to try to shoot for. Here's the… Yeah, totally. Here's the… Are there any… What are you going to be telling Logan in the first few days? Because you used to have to tell me a lot. You used to have to kind of guide me through it in a sense because you get tired. You get crushed.
We've been working a lot on pacing in the pre-race. I think that we're set there. But the race excitement always ramps up. So I have a feeling there might be a time or two where I'm telling him to dial it back. We'll go out
hard. Yeah, there's pretty much no way to not go out hard. You know, you get to the start line, it's exciting. Your heart rate's already at 150 before you even start moving. So we'll move. And then bringing it way back. Yeah. 12 days. We learned a lot in the X-Pyr. Yeah. As far as going out too hard. You guys worked together in the X-Pyr. We did. We're a rookie X-Alps team, but we
had this team in the X-Pyr. With Chris
as well. With Chris Lormer as well. Oh, and then you have the videographers. So you've got four on the team in a sense. But three core? Yeah, it's three core. One vehicle for the three of us. And then we have Matt Fairfax here. He's going to do some filming for Shox. So really excited about that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we did the X-Pyr in a smaller van
and trickier terrain and fewer places to fill water. Worth cell service. So in a lot of ways, I think that was great preparation. The team worked really well. And I think with some of the advantages of the Alps, it'll be pretty smooth.
And I understand you and Chris have a fond love of gummies, just like you and Ben. Is that right? Yeah, I'm definitely the main gummy guy on the team. But these guys dip into it every once in a while. Every stop we make, Revis loads up. It keeps them going. Whatever's going to make the supporters happy, I'm happy. What goal, what overriding goal or overriding achievement, what do you want to get out of this? Where would you like to be in 12 days? Not necessarily geographically. Yeah, yeah, sure. Good question. So the whole idea right now is go out, have fun, have an epic adventure. I'm not worried about placement. I'm not worried about competing against the other athletes because there's such a wide variety. But what we're here to do is to keep moving and trying to make it to the finish line.
You say that. Everybody has said that, by the way. Okay. Is that a hard thing to achieve? I mean, can you live that? Yeah, it gets easier and easier. I'm a competitive person, for sure. But for this race, and I think we showed that in the prologue, it wasn't about what place we got. It was about not being on the ground when we should be in the air. And honestly, I believe it, but it also just helps me sleep. Yeah. You know, it just takes so much of the pressure off not thinking about the other athletes. We're looking at them as if, you know, they're showing us their moves. They're showing, you know, some routes, things like that. Using them as information. Exactly, exactly. That's what Revis is doing a ton of. But no, the goal is OMC, and we're racing the clock.
Yeah. Revis, what are you doing differently, if anything, this time around? How has your past experience informed how you go forward in this one?
We're using pretty much the same blueprint. We've maybe tweaked some of the apps and technology we use a little bit.
But pretty much the same program. Continuously looking at weather forecasts, real-time weather data, all the live tracking, and just constantly updating our tactical profile as we go. And trying to feed Logan only the relevant information when he's flying. And as soon as he's on the ground, give him the best route to the next launch or campsite. And he's solid with the decision-making in those situations, too. He's got the technical skills to land wherever he needs to. And pull up a map and figure out a next launch if he's out of cell service or if there's any question. Because we can't see everything he can.
I gather from following you on social and, you know, your passion for this sport, I gather this is potentially the first of many. Is that how you're kind of thinking about this? Coming into it, the idea was no. Let's think about this one. Let's decide after the race. You know, all that kind of stuff. I can already say that I love it. You know, we haven't started the race. So, I will let you know for sure after. Yeah, exactly. Let's talk in 12 days. But for now, you know, we're trying to do our best to set ourselves up for future success. And so, no matter how this race goes, hopefully there's the opportunity for another one. Whether we do it or not. And do you see that for yourself as well, Rose? It's a big undertaking for everybody, not just Logan.
It's a lot of prep. It's a lot of time. It's a lot of money. There's a lot that goes into this.
Yeah, we were talking about that in the car the other day. I think where I stand is...
That was a good one.
I think where I stand is I can't realistically commit to doing a High Can Fly race support role in Europe every summer. It just eats into my XC flying too much. It's too much the good flying in the States. But I certainly could do X-Alps every other year. It's
pretty fun, isn't it? I'm hearing a lot of different things about the weather. Tom Payne, who's been in the race and followed the race since the beginning, is saying he thinks it's going to be the fastest X-Alps ever. I'm also hearing that the first couple of days look pretty tricky. You're very good at the weather. What are you seeing?
We're not looking that far ahead, really. I'm trying generally not to look more than two days in advance because it's just not that relevant to our tactics. We make use of what we've got. I
don't even want to know. I haven't even thought about it. Well, how does tomorrow look? Let's say that. I haven't gotten that far. Really? Excellent. Forecasts will get dialed in this evening. It'll be what it is. That's it, yeah. The whole thing, there's a lot of unknowns. We'll figure them out as we go. Some things you can control and some things you have no control over. That's exactly right. It's not relevant to Logan's decision making. It stays out of his ears and out of his brain. Excellent. Love it. Guys, good luck. I'm stoked to fly with you some, hopefully, and see what you guys do. I'm mostly just stoked to see how your adventure unfolds. Thanks,
Gavin. Thanks for your time. Thanks,
guys.
I'm speaking to Marcus Anders. Hi, Marcus. How are you feeling? Hi, Gavin. We're 24 hours out. Yeah, it's getting close. It's getting close. The fun is getting real. Yeah, it's a hard week, isn't it? I find there's just so much going on. You just want to go, want to go, do it. Yeah, but it's part of the game. You have to do all the pre-week shots and organization. But at one point, you look really forward to the start because then basically it's just hike and fly game and enjoying the pain, enjoying the fun. This is kind of home for you, correct? You're pretty close to home. This is your third. Yeah. Okay. How does this one feel different, if any, from the previous two at this point?
It kind of feels good to have to start here. Start in my kind of backyard. I know the area quite well. That's why I took it easy in the pre-week. And route-wise, anyway, it's kind of similar to last edition and the edition before. It's just like puzzling together. Yeah. So I think there I'm quite optimistic and I know the area.
But for me, this accepts it. This is not just the third, except it's like a milestone because 15 months ago, I had a bad crash with the speed wing and I broke my upper leg quite hard. So it's kind of the milestone to get back into hike and fly racing because since then I did like proper comp racing, some physical races, but not hike and fly racing. And it feels super important for me to just know, okay, I can do it again and compete again. How does it feel mentally with that injury and also the other two, the last two you've had injuries as well that have unfortunately forced you to retire?
Does any of that play in your mind at this point or does that make you stronger? I think there's quite some positive things out of this happening. I was super lucky and I appreciate it that I can still do all my stuff.
But now I fly differently. I think more into that with some decisions I make and I really avoid unnecessary risk. So if I'm not 100 % sure if I can top land, for example, I have like some connection to my leg and my leg suddenly starts to like make some small pain and I'm like, okay, take it easy. You don't need to force the top landing. And two years ago, I was like quite good in the race. And then on day 10, I made some mistakes on top landing and hurt my ankle. And then I had to retire the race, unfortunately, because I was like... You would have made Monaco. You were doing really well.
You were having a good race. This year I'm really looking forward to make my race slow down sometimes because slowing down sometimes means you are going fast. You don't need to rush all the time. That's also quite some learning from my accident because there was some rush involved and stuff.
So I'm feeling good. And I'm looking forward to finish the race this year in Zell am See. Is there one thing that concerns you? Is there one thing that's kind of got you the most nervous, whether that's the route or the other athletes or the team or the preparation, something that is... I wish there could be that difference. Yeah, you know, to have a proper goal for the race, it can give you some great motivation. And for me, the main goal will be to reach the goal line.
And I'm a little bit afraid if you have this motivation and the weather is bad, then you might not reach the goal. Even it can happen that none of all the pilots reach the goal line because of shitty weather. Because the route is longer. There are some parts where you have to like land, make a selfie, do the Via Ferrata. And also with the snow situation this year, high turn points, it might be tricky to reach them by foot and also flying-wise because if there's a lot of snow, sometimes it's not that easy to go into the high mountains. And this can... It is a good motivation in the beginning, but at one point when you see the end coming and you calculate it's rainy and you don't reach the goal line,
you can fall into kind of depression and that's quite some mental game. And there I really need to be strong and my whole team needs to be strong. Yeah, it's not all going to go according to plan. We know that. It never does. Yeah, you can plan like for ages but at the end it will be different. It is what it is. That's also like the positive thing about the race because that's the adventure. It's adventure flying. You plan, it will be different. Sometimes you get some cool surprises. Sometimes you just fuck up and you think you don't know how to fly anymore. And then you see live tracking and everyone is bombing out. And so, okay. It's okay. It's okay.
Yeah,
there's a lot of possibilities in 12 days, isn't there? There's been many times in mine where I just think, oh, well, that's it, you know, and then an hour later you're okay. And sometimes not, but lots of ups and downs. Markus, I wish you the best of luck. You and your team have a wonderful adventure. Stay healthy and we'll see you in 12 days in Zell. Yeah, thank you very much, Kevin. It was really nice to talk to you. As always. And then see you at the finish line. Sounds good, bud. Thank you. Good luck. Thanks.
Nikola, sitting in your van, we're about 24 hours out. How are you feeling? I'm feeling quite relaxed at the moment. Good. We are just thinking day by day. And yeah, because if you think at the whole race, you can feel the... Yeah, the anxiety. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we are quite relaxed and we just check it. Check the weather for tomorrow. How does it look? Yeah, not so good actually, but yeah. With the overdevelopment? It's like quite cloudy all the day. Maybe in the afternoon it will be a bit of sun, but then some development. Yeah, I'm hearing some quite strong northeast winds maybe? Maybe. Some weather predictions,
yeah. They have some pretty strong wind, but others not. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see tomorrow. How do you feel, if you can remember, this time compared to two years ago? You were a rookie going into the last one, but still a lot of flying experience in your family and in your history. But how do you feel this time compared to last time? Yeah, it's quite different. When you are a rookie, everything is new. You feel the pressure from the media, from the other athletes. And now it's more familiar, no? Yeah. When you come here and you already know many athletes, so you feel more relaxed and more focused to do your best.
And we have more experience that helps us a bit. And so, yeah, it's more nice the second time. Yeah. You and I had a really cool flight off the Chiemsee in the last race. That was very special. That was really cool coming out of those clouds. And the memories from this are amazing, aren't they? Yeah, I remember you coming in the takeoff. I was waiting there for quite a while. And you told me something like, what a crazy shit we are going to do. Yeah, I remember exactly what you told me. We're just going to fly into the invisible. Yeah.
Last time, there were quite a few accidents in the last race. And some fear injuries. A lot of really crazy weather. The craziest that I had seen in my four editions. I never really found out. They didn't publish too much about what happened. You hit some cable. What happened with the accident? Yeah, it was quite a strange situation. I was flying very close to Theo that was in front of me. I was like 20 meters behind him. And we were in this valley with a lot of cables invisible. Yes, that place is scary. Yeah, yeah. And I saw some cables before. And then Theo was in front of me.
So I was a bit more relaxed. And then suddenly I saw a cable just in front of Theo. And one second later, Theo catched this cable with his wing. And I was so close that I was afraid to go into Theo that was falling. Geez, wow. So we were also very close to the ridge. So I decided to go on the ridge and don't plant.
Well, that was falling beside me. Yeah. And there was a small tree that I touched it with the stabilo. And spun you into the hill. Yeah, right. So it wasn't a cable that got you. It was the landing. Yeah, the landing. There was a cable. Theo took it. I was avoiding Theo. Wow. See, I never even knew that. Yeah, but it happened in like one second, two seconds. Yeah. And how bad was the injury? Not so bad actually. I had three macro fracture on the vertebrae. Okay. But nothing too serious. I just took two months of relax and then I was like. Okay. Yeah. What was it like emotionally to have to end?
I've often felt so bad. Over the years for people that have either gotten hurt or just can't keep going. It must be really difficult. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's better to don't think during the race. But yeah, this part is not easy. And I think in the next year we should like have more rules because. Yeah, it's still an extreme sport. But with more rules, it's more fair and with less risk. Because some years someone told me that there
were some cases that could be worse than the injury. Yeah, sure. So, yeah, you know, when you are in a race, you have a mind of competition. So you don't care about. Risk too much. I mean, I'm quite shy. So I care about that. But if I'm here for winning, I go over not this this risks. Yeah. And there were things that things happen. What is your goal for this? This one? If you have you have many goals, I'm sure. But is there an overriding, you know, something you want to achieve from this race? Sure. Sure. My goal is to enjoy the race and then to reach the finish line.
And that is very, very ambitious goal. But yeah, this is what I'm looking for. And this year I had some difficult moments at home. So I'm not so trained as I wanted to be here. Physically, you mean, or flying wise? Physically. Yeah, I'm not so bad. Maybe a bit more. I was more trained last time, but I was hoping to come here more prepared. But it's what it is. And and the goal is still the same. Your dad is one of the legends of the sport. What what advice has he given you that's helped?
He's actually speaking not so much with me. Yeah. For example, one time we were making a training task with the other pilots. And I was flying so bad and I was super sad at the landing. And I asked him what what I did wrong. No. And he rapped me like, ah, you were flying today. You know, he was flying today. So he shows me how to fly good. He never really teach me. OK, yeah. Show by example. Yeah. Nicola, good luck. I have a soft spot in my heart for you. For some reason, I really like watching what you do.
And we had some nice moments in the air last time. And I wish you the best of luck. You and your team have a wonderful adventure. Thank you so much,
Kevin. And
see you around. See
you around. Sounds good.
All
right. I'm with Team Oz. Rich, how you doing, man? Good. Yeah. How you feeling? Pretty good. Yeah. The prologue was a little bit stressful. Yeah. Something that you don't really want to mess up on. So I was like, I was pretty stressed. Yeah. Well, before the prologue. But that went probably better than I'd expected. OK. And then, yeah, I'm not feeling anywhere near as nervous about tomorrow as the prologue, actually, because I can sort of take my time and like I've got three days to do all right. Yes. So I really want to I don't want to get eliminated on day three. That would be a bit demoralizing. Is that your biggest fear at this point? Or what's your what's your biggest concern? I guess my biggest concern is. Well, being injured is probably number one.
Yeah. And then being eliminated on day three, I think would be. Yeah, it wouldn't be great because it's a lot of prep to only go three days. Yeah. Yeah. The preparation people don't really realize how intense it is. Preparation is as soon as you get in and start thinking, well, I actually got myself two days just to celebrate. I had a few drinks, you know, called some friends up and then I needed to start training and started getting plans. And it's just a really, as you know, it's just a lot big. It's like being being a project manager for a company, you know? Yeah. But and people are coming with you on this ride and it's sort of, you know, inherently, it's pretty selfish activity. So trying to get the right people with the right skills and then I don't have heaps of money.
I don't, you know, spend most of my time not working in my life adventuring. Yeah. So trying to work that in exercise and work. I don't know how people like James does it with like two kids and a wife. Yeah, it's impressive. The ones that aren't, you know, quote unquote professional pilots that they're doing. This is, you know, it's a lot. It's a year. It is. And then you talk to the guys that are, you know, they do this professionally. They never stop training. Yeah, it's just it's gone. It's almost like there's three tiers. You know, yeah, there's the pros. You pretty much. Well, I think it'd be really, really, really difficult to beat those guys because they're just full time. And they have, you know, support and they have heaps of sponsorship. They don't really have to worry as much. I don't think is, you know, it's different pressures on Australia.
It is different pressures because they've got probably a lot more people to make happy. And yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot of demands, too, that you don't see. There's a lot of people pulling them in. You would have gone through it. Yeah, it's just, you know, it's a it's a lot of workload. I've always thought that it's actually probably easier to just make your money and then go do it. Yeah, that's Nick Nunnons. I spoke to him before. He did the sponsorship thing for the first race. Yeah. And then afterwards, it's just easier going and working. Get mom and get a little car and eat some cheese. I don't know if I'd do it. Nick's a special character. He's very special. Yeah.
Yesterday, we had this little moment where I was like, okay, when are you planning on washing my clothes? You know, Nicky, who's brought in last time, was like, we didn't do any washing last time. No, he didn't need much. Yeah. I'm like, really? Just give him some. He's a bugger. He'll be all right. Then I ask team Connor and they're like, yeah, we're going to wash his clothes. So I need to have that discussion because I stink. Oh, boy. You got it. You should you should come on Team USA one of these days. I'll show you some smell. All right. Holy cow. We win that category for sure. So what do you what you said? One of your concerns is the elimination. But what what's kind of the source of maybe you and your team is rookie. There's a lot you don't know. You've got Nicky who did who supported Nick a couple of times.
So she's bringing a lot of experience. But what are the things that you guys are? What would you say is kind of defining the race right now in terms of the shit factor? You know what? There's a lot you don't know when you're going into the is a rookie. I'm really lucky. Actually, I'm connected to a lot of inexperienced people. And I was here for three weeks before the race. And I just met just like previous pilots that were willing to help me out. It's a nice community, isn't it? Yeah, it's fantastic. All these people just came out of the woodwork. So I've got Sebastian Benz, who I rate as one of the best pilots in the world. He was doing the weather for us. He's actually going to Texas in a couple of days to try and break the world record with the Swiss League. So he was a bit like, oh, sorry.
It's the last minute just to let you know, you know, do the weather. But his girlfriend, Steffi, who supported Chrigel in his last campaign. So she's a meteorologist. She's going to help us out with the weather. Great. And then Martin, I'm not sure of Martin's name, but he was in four X-Ups. I think the last one was maybe 2017. Martin Mueller? Yeah. Geez. Yeah, I know. I met him flying the French Flats a couple of weeks ago. He's super keen to help out. He was saying Chrigel calls him up, you know, for advice. Oh, yeah. We have a WhatsApp group. Krisha Burlington, who was in 2017 X-Ups. Yeah. Shay Gollis, who was also in the 2017 X-Ups.
Some pilots, Christopher Fromm, he actually works with Burn Air and lives in Fish. He's on our group. Great. Helping us out when we go through there. Cool. And just random, you know, local pilots along the way who want to help. I've added them to WhatsApp. So that's something that we'll, yeah, we'll sort of call on and rely on. We don't, we're not going to rely on them. This is just like. Yeah, more information is good information. I found in the XP that a lot of people will kind of hold back because they don't want to tell you to do something that will end up, you know, in a mistake. But as long as we have a good weather forecast, we know whether to take the north route or the south route. Something else I need to mention. Nova have just been incredible with our preparation.
I've slept in the night, like I've been dirtbagging a bit, slept in the Nova office six times in the last couple of weeks. Great. They help with the stickers. They're helping with route decisions. We've got like north route tracks, south route tracks, you know, over developing in the back range tracks. Till, who's been contracting for Nova for the last 20, 30 years. He was cruising around with us for a week, helping us, pointing out where not to go, where to go. There's a little bit of pressure, actually, because if I do something that he taught me, I'm going to be in trouble. Why'd you do that? You know, I told you that. And that's so much information. Yeah. But making the call at the time is, you know, it's another thing.
Yeah, it's another thing. What is your, I have to admit, I don't know much about your background. I read your bio for your application. You've done a lot of adventure type stuff. But you said before we started recording that you've been flying about 10 years. Give the listeners a very quick resume of your flying background. No worries. Probably starts with the death of my mum. So I was heavily into rock climbing. And I was always, since I was 12, I grew up near Canungra, which is a really popular flying spot in Australia. Yeah. Saw a hang glider and said to myself, I'm going to do that when I get older. My dad was a pilot, fixed wing pilot, worked for Civil Aviation Authority for 40 years. He's been retired for ages now. So I've sort of got it in my blood. I was flying balsa wood gliders, trying to catch thermals when I was 10 down the local tennis court.
So I've had it in my mind that I wanted to be a pilot. It was hang gliding, actually. I wanted to be a pilot. I still do. I'd like to get trained. And then my mum passed away 2012. I found myself, I was volunteering, doing nursing in Nepal. And I was pretty sad. I was close to mum. And I thought, oh, well, I may as well just have a look at this paragliding just to see if I liked it. And I did through, was it Blue Sky Paragliding? Did the 17 day course and I was just hooked from day one. And the first four years I had two major shoulder operations, sort of back to back. So I didn't do any flying for a year. I had 60 hours in the first four years and the last six and a half years.
I just decided to hit it and thought, well, if I'm going to get good at this, I need to fly as much as I can and try and just be as confident as possible. My main goal, actually, was to just do vol biv. So I went to went to Pokhara Turn Circles for 60 hours in the same thermal. So I sort of went thermaling. I was really lucky. I went to went to beer directly after that trip and ran into Brian Moore. He's like, have you heard of Brian Moore? Yeah, sure, of course.
I've got a big man crush on that guy. It's just the biggest adventure. And he was doing vol biv in the late 80s in New Zealand. And this stuff doesn't really get talked about because of, you know, I was not big on social media. We didn't have Instagram back then. Yeah, exactly. So if he was young and he'd be, I don't know, I don't know who I'd compare him to. John Sylvester. Yeah, yeah. Or Antoine Girard or something. Yeah. Just the stuff that he was doing was just incredible. And not just paragliding. He was New Zealand Mountaineer of the Year, like really competent. He does he does everything outdoors and he's really good at it. He did four or five
kiting, snow kiting, skiing. So he was your inspiration. Yeah. And he took me on my first vol biv trip in Bia, got up to six thousand meters, landed down in Manali and camped at four thousand. My mind was just blown. I was a hundred hour pilot. I'm in. Yeah, exactly. And after that, I've been doing everything I can. Get that little twitch in your eye that you can never shake. Yeah, I remember landing on the way back to Bia because I didn't really know where to go when I landed. And I just laid on the ground. I was like, oh, my God, what have I just done? You know, that was so full on scary. So that was that was really important for me. And then I've just spent a lot of time in Bia. I've got local friends, have a motorcycle there. It's been difficult because of COVID, but that's really good place to get skills up. Yeah. So to cut a long story short, my main goal was to get enough skills so I could do serious vol biv.
And then I was booked into a trip to Kyrgyzstan. I was going to go there for a month. And then COVID happened. And so my flights were all booked ready to go. I was going to go with a Canadian friend and then couldn't go because of COVID. And you got COVID during the X-Pyr. Yeah. Yeah. So I thought, like, I'm getting pretty old. I was born in 1976. Yeah. And last year I just had this year before crazy idea. I just apply for X-Pyr and then I got in and then I was just like a life experience thing, wanted to just go and have some fun with some mates. And I got COVID. Like out of all the things that could happen. Yeah. And then, yeah, test myself on day five. Like I was sick, like really sick. I had night sweats and stuff.
And I was like, well, I could do this with COVID because I walked 300k with 16,000 meters elevation and didn't fly very far as it was really full on event. Yeah. Flew 180k or something. But and then after that, we didn't really think it was like, I don't know, I wasn't put off by the experience. I just applied for X-Hops and. Here you are. Yeah. Well, good luck, my friend. It's going to be fun to watch you guys. I wish you and your team the best of luck and have a wonderful and safe adventure. And I hope to see you in Zelle in 12 days. Thanks for chatting. And yeah, our goal is to have as much fun as possible. That's all. That's what it's all about, man. Yeah. Whether you're going for the win or just having an adventure, it ain't worth it.
If you're not having fun. Yeah, exactly. I think the team that has the most fun is probably the one.
The ones
that win. Well, I'll be looking for you guys having fun. Thank you very much. Thanks, man. Thanks. Appreciate it. Yeah,
just nice and steady because the hand is when it moves, it's it's crazy. Oh, so that's not just the present.
OK, we're talking to Tanguy and Tim Roaches, who you're a rookie this year. You just did the Chablis out and gave Chrigel a hell of a run for its money. And you got fourth in the prologue beast. What are you guys thinking at this point? We're 24 hours from the race. How do you feel? Good. A little stressed because it's the first time we will do it. So, yeah, we are me. I'm a little bit stressed. Yeah, I don't know. Same for everyone in the team. It's what what as a rookie team. But you've worked together quite a bit in the Borns, the Chablis, the X Red Rocks. You both competed in the X Red Rocks. But do you feel that that gives you to is it relevant to the X-Alps or is this just a completely different kind of so much more?
I think we trained a lot. We made many competition until today, but the X-Alps, it's one step over. So it's longer, it's harder. It's the team is bigger. So we will have to manage with all this. So, yeah, I think it will be one step over for sure. Was the prologue quite good for your confidence? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm sure it's good for the mentality to finish close to the podium. In the X-Pyr, you had the small injury with your leg and that was tricky. What did you change from from there to here? I remember we were talking about this last fall in terms of your physical training. I took a coach for my training and I made a lot of downhill
more than the preparation for the X-Pyr. OK.
So I changed
a lot of this and I made also a lot of trial running more. Not only I can fly, but also a lot of trial running, yeah. What is your... What have you been doing to learn the course? Has that been on the move and you're flying a bunch of it? Are you doing mostly from maps? What has been your team and your preparation for the twelve hundred and some odd kilometers that you've got to cover in the next twelve days? I think we checked mostly. Mostly on internet, on maps and on XA track and all these maps. Is your plan to, between each turn point, do you have various different routes that you can just load up or are you just going to fly the sky?
Is it more... We will see during the race. Yeah. Yeah. We prepared many things, but for sure we will need to adapt all the time. And yeah, for sure it's always depending on what time we will be at this point or... Tim, you're a really accomplished World Cup pilot. Are you two in touch when he's flying and you're on the ground and you're feeding information or... OK, so when you're in the air, you're getting feedback from your team. You're getting information on the weather and... Yeah, and many also for the airspace. OK. Yeah. Are you nervous about the airspace? Yeah. And for all the information about the other pilot. Yeah. OK. As a rookie team, I know there's a lot of unknowns.
What is the most... What is the thing you're more concerned about than anything else right now? I think I will say how to manage with... How to sleep and to not be so much tired to deal with this. Yeah. And don't... Yeah. Don't go so fast at the beginning. Keep a lot of energy. Keep it tapped. Yeah. I'm really excited to watch you guys. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. It's
going to be the
best of luck, Tanguy. You're ready, man. I can tell it. I can see it in your face. So enjoy the adventure. Yeah. Thank you, Gavin. Thanks, guys.
Second time. Yeah. Excellent. Tom, it's good to be sitting here with you. Getting ready for your ninth one. How are you feeling? Yeah, man, I'm feeling great. I mean, as always, you know, the pre-week is a little bit hectic. You know, everyone is running around. We're trying to fix all the little problems. And but right now the team is ready. Everything is set. And yeah, it's always like it's time to go. You know, we want to we just want to go. We want to hit the road. Yeah, I bet there's a lot of anticipation here, isn't there? You got here first, though, you said. Yeah. So this time, you know, I played it a little bit differently. I came here first, like, yeah, almost eight days ago or something. I came first. And when you come first, the team is relaxed. You know, the organization was super chill. I was the first in, you know, so no, no stress.
Everyone was really peaceful. And I did everything on the first day. I did. The shooting, the branding check, you know, the medical check. Everything was done really fast. Yeah. I kind of squeezed in, you know, here and there. And and then I could kind of disconnect again. I went off. I went to the mountains. I went flying a little bit. I just, yeah, left the place because even I I mean, I like to spend time with all the competitors and stuff. But this camping place, you know, it becomes, you know, everyone is stressed. Lots of questions and stuff. And I like to have a bit of a time off before I go on a race like this. So then I came back for the prologue. Prologue was amazing and everything went well. And it's it's really cool. This prologue, because it's always a good opportunity to see if everything is ready to test it all, test it all and double check everything.
And now it's time to go, man. It's like we could stay here for five more days preparing and, you know, looking at things and preparing checklists and stuff. But at the end of the day, you know, it's time to start and then we go in. And when we really when we will be once we will be on the road, it's going to be, you know, gone and and everything stays behind and we can just focus on on racing. You're on the pilot committee and there are some pretty big changes this year, both for safety and for night pass. And it's going to things. But talk about the rest period. I don't know that the fans understand how that works. Yeah. So it's been you know, it's been a while. We've been talking about it for a while. I I've known I've known all the difference, you know, situation because in 2007 we had no rest period, you know, it was like four, seven, we slept almost nothing.
We would sleep two hours here, two hours there. Everyone was exhausted. It was very risky. And obviously the organization understood that, OK, it would make sense to put a rest period, but then the first time they did it, it was a very short one. Around four hours or something. And everyone sticks to that and then doesn't rest at all, you know. So and we've been talking to them for a while. And this year we said, OK, we think that it's now time to really think about safety because we've come to a moment in the X-Alps history where, you know, the level is extremely high. People fly in all kind of conditions with technical gliders, you know, and with a little rest, you can get quite dangerous. So we thought, OK, if we make the resting period a little longer and you can compare it to the X-Pyr or to other races, even though the X-Alps is totally different and it's a it's a different league, but but you see that if you have more resting period, it actually goes faster because people take better decisions.
They run faster on the ground, you know, and they recover better. And we think and we hope that it would mean also less accidents. And I'm always a little bit surprised. And I mean, touch wood, we hope that nothing's going to ever going to happen. But it's quite incredible that all those years nothing very serious has happened. You know, so now we are in a situation where we've we want to avoid every, you know, any big accidents. And we talk to the organizer and to the team with the pilot committee and with the athletes, we ask for a little longer rest period. And we finally found a really cool compromise. And I think it's a that's a really good move. We have the rest periods a bit longer, but only by half an hour. So that's not very significant.
I mean, it's seven hours instead of 630. But what really makes a difference and I think it's super smart, it's to we can adapt it. It's and we can choose when we take this block of seven hours between nine and 11 in the evening and it means between four and six in the morning. So at nine, you can say, OK, I can stop now because I've been hiking all day and I'm exhausted and I will push tomorrow morning again because after it's flyable or we can say, hey, I'm feeling fresh. I've been flying all day. I'm just going to go for two more hours. And then tomorrow I position myself and you stop at 11. What also is makes a big difference, it means that you can better select your campsite because many times before I would say to my team, hey, guys, six kilometers in front, wait for me and then they would go.
But maybe they don't find something. They go another kilometer and then it's steep and then you start. You end up running up the hill, you know, to make it on time or on the other way around, like you arrive too early to the camp and then you burn 20 minutes just for nothing. So now I think that's going to help. Also, people, as soon as you get there, you hit the clock and your bell. Exactly. Hours. Yeah, that's the thing. That's great. So. I think that's that's really cool to do it like this. And the other big change is the night pass. You now can call it at eight p.m. So it gives you another eight hours to think about it. Yeah. So in the past, we've seen that, you know, some athletes, you know, you had to announce the the night pass run before noon, I think. And so it means that you don't really know where you're going to be in the evening. You know, you don't you don't have a clear idea in your head.
Like, am I going to fly far this afternoon? I'm going to be on top of a mountain, or and so we thought it would be much more interesting to be able to use it in the evening, or to say to the organization that you will use it in the evening because then you can just say, OK, well, now it's the time, you know, seven p.m. Let's check what's the what would be a good move or do we have a long valley crossing tomorrow or should we just push on foot or. And so I think we will use it better this way and people will make better choices. And it it also means that it's going to be safer for everyone, because if you're exhausted and then you say, yeah, shit, I pulled my. My night pass this morning, but I didn't know I was going to hike all day and I'm exhausted, but you still want to use it, you push more and then you don't sleep. And that's so I think it's also in terms of safety, quite interesting and strategically a lot more interesting.
And for those who have to night passes, you know, they can. They've got some padding there. I mean, it's more margins, I think, tighter than we've ever seen, maybe with the with the level and I think those the three that have it, it's nice to have. It's a nice thing to have even a couple of hours or something can make the whole difference. Especially at the end. And the other big one is this yellow card, red card thing. What's that all about? Yeah, so that's that's also interesting. I don't know that that came really from the organization side. This they thought that we should have something, you know, like we should say something if if someone does something wrong, like we've talked a lot about flying into clouds before, you know, and we know that some athletes have been flying into clouds repeatedly. And we also know that some athletes have been flying in teams.
And and that really is a big advantage if you're flying with three, four or five guys around you, you know, like maybe competition pilots, super fresh pilot local pilots in the area, they go in front, they show you the thermals and stuff. That's of course, that's a massive advantage. And that's something we don't want to see, because obviously that's not fair. You know, so the organization said, OK, well, we should think about something. And now they came out with the idea of, well, first penalty, it's always there. I mean, if they are 100 percent sure that you went into a cloud, it's filmed or it's, you know, you have proof, then you might get a directly penalty. But if there is a doubt and, you know, it's not cleared and there's a yellow card, you can get two yellow cards and then you get a red card. And I think it was just for them to say, OK, be careful.
We're looking at you. Don't do anything stupid. And if you do, everyone will know. It's not like I give you a call. It's you get a yellow card and the whole community knows that you're being, you know, playing with the edges a little bit. So I think that's all together. That's interesting. But what I I'm not sure about is the way they should implement it, because I don't think that the athletes will, you know, call the organization and say, hey, this guy went into a cloud, I mean, it's just we're all friends here and we all respect each other and stuff. And so now it comes to down to this. I think between ourselves and between the athletes, we kind of made a gentleman agreement when I talk with the other guys. And yeah, just let's OK, that's OK. If you get sucked into a cloud for 10 meters, but just don't go 300 meters in the cloud, don't use it to advantage.
Just just let's play fair and the best will win. And that's it. Yeah. Excellent. So the final question I have to ask you, this is your ninth one. You've been doing this for half your life, as you said in the press conference yesterday, how is this different than your preparation in the beginning? How does it feel different? Yeah, I mean, it really feels different because, you know, in 2007, I was only 21 years old, super young. I had no clue about the whole thing. I had no money. I was on a super small budget. I was sleeping in my van was more a car than a van. So we had to keep the door open so that I could sleep. And, you know, so it was like it was quite tight. And yeah, I had no clue about it. Like, I didn't know how it would work and stuff.
But still, I had a great race. I was always into the top ten and I was really pushing physically and and flying and so on, but I've learned so much and that's what I like from the very first edition is that you learn so much about the flying, obviously. But, you know, also how to prepare physically, mentally, about nutrition, about, you know, dealing with the lack of sleep, dealing with emotions and stuff. And I think altogether it makes you a better person, you know, in a way. Also how to work with with the team, you know, how to. And so that's been very interesting. And for me, it has been kind of a through my life, you know, it helped me. It was kind of a little lighthouse, you know, out there every two years. I knew, OK, I have the exalts in my agenda.
I have to select the proper team. I have to prepare physically. I have to take care of what I eat. I rest, you know, how I manage budgets or anything. And so that's been really interesting for me. It's really it comes down to this. It's a it's a really big part of my life. Yeah. And but, you know, if I look at if I take a bit of distance,
I'm I'm not only, you know, I'm a competitive guy, but but altogether this is not about this anymore, you know, this is more about the adventure and the beauty of being out there with the team and pushing my main goal is to make it to the end in style, you know, like big lines and and fly well and enjoy the flying and then push as much as I can and I want to be, you know, on the last day I want to say, OK, well, I've I've gave it all, you know, all I had. And I think now it's number nine. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go to number 10 because that's a cool number. But then then I might, you know, I might do something like you. You know, I think that's so cool. I would love to do that. See the race from the outside and, you know, just be there with with everyone.
And and I think also for you, it's so interesting to see it from the outside, to see how people function and how they work and and maybe you come back into yours with all this knowledge. You know, since I look at it kind of like spying, I know what's going on with my team. But this would give a chance. I'm really looking forward to that. I want to come and see what you guys do at night and the other teams and how it operates. And as you know, the team is everything. It's fun. I love it. You're going to war, you know, with your best mates. And it's it's tantalizing. And that's the thing, you know, I've learned that through the years. Also, I'm my first supporter at the time. We could only have one supporter. And we did like everything would come with only one supporter. And I remember telling him, yeah, you know,
I'm fishing, but during the day you can stay at the campsite and you stay by the swimming pool, read a book and then in the evening come and drop me some food and stuff. And so I would go I would I would get into lines at the local shops to buy an ice cream or something. It was 2007. And then the second time I did it with my or the third time I did it with my brother just because we thought, ah, this is a cool adventure, but he knew nothing about paragliding. Right. He's an encounter, you know. So my team has always been like, OK, well, just pure feeling. But since I would say 2013, 2015, started to really select my teams and check, OK, how can they bring to the team and what can they bring to the team and stuff? And and this is so interesting. Yeah. And we have really cool, really good profiles this year.
People really know how to how to deal with this. And and that's super interesting. You learn so much. Yeah. Yeah. Tom, I wish you the best of luck. You and your team have a wonderful adventure. We will be out in the air with you. Excellent. Yeah. I'll hang with you. Maybe you can show me a few thermals. I'll try. Yeah. Thanks,
my friend. Cheers, man.