He is only 13km from the final turnpoint, Peille, but that's a straight line distance and the roads here are anything but straight. He can expect a long hike, perhaps as much as four or five hours, but will likely still make it tonight as he has pulled his Ledlenser Night Pass.

Even if he makes Peille this evening, he won’t be able to fly down to Monaco until 06:00 tomorrow morning.

After a brilliant afternoon flight, Maurer now looks like he has his fifth Red Bull X-Alps trophy in the bag, but his injured knee will have to put up with one last push. Still, he has the sea air in his lungs and the sand between his toes.

Rookie Benoit Outters (FRA3), in 2nd place, is 63km behind.

Photo by © zooom / Sebastian Marko