Both Markus Anders (GER2) and Gaspard Petiot (FRA2) spent the night above 3.000m last night, camped out near Turnpoint 7 Titlis.

The question they faced this morning was whether to fly down early, or to wait for the day – and the thermals – to develop.

At 07:30 Petiot was unsure of what he would do. ‘We are getting ready but I’m not sure whether to take off right now, or at around 11am.’

He added: ‘It’s clear, not raining, and I had a super comfortable night. Yesterday though was super tiring, exhausting. I did 3.700m of ascent in the day. I’ve done that a few times before, but not often.’

How was his race going? ‘I’m happy with it, but I can’t wait for the sun to come out! I am expecting the sun.’

Meanwhile, he had already enjoyed his breakfast. ‘We have this Adventure Menu packs, the one they gave us. It was super cool, super good.’

Markus Anders also spent the night near the Turnpoint. His supporter Kilian Hallweger said Anders’s plan was to fly early. ‘He is going to fly down to Meiringen and make his way to Grindelwald. He will fly early.’

He added: ‘Conditions are getting a little bit cloudy, but it’s still good to take off.’

Yesterday had been an ‘exhausting’ day but good. ‘Everything went really well yesterday, he pushed a lot. He made 5.250m of ascent. That’s a lot.

‘He is happy with how the race is going so far. In the beginning we fell a little bit behind, but now we are catching up. It feels great.’

Meanwhile, on the long approach up to the Turnpoint, Tom de Dorlodot (BEL) was still facing the tough hike up the mountain. 

‘I have 500-600m of vertical left to go. I will be there in an hour. I’m feeling good. I had a very long day yesterday, I think I climbed nearly 5.000m up yesterday, it was a lot of hiking to fly down.’

He hoped to get to the Turnpoint before Petiot launched. ‘I will be there in an hour. I will look at the weather, but if I see that there is a chance to thermal then I will take it.

He added that flying with Petiot would be good. ‘He is a great pilot, and from here to Monaco he knows everything! 

‘So for me it might be interesting to be on a take-off with Gaspard. And for me it’s more about getting to Monaco than the ranking, If we can cover distance we will be faster together.’

Meanwhile, behind de Dorlodot, another 20 athletes were still hiking and flying towards the Turnpoint 7, both the highest Turnpoint in the race, and the halfway point in their journey to the sea.

Their adventure has a long way to go yet. Follow all the action on Live Tracking.