Fatigue is taking its toll on the athletes after nine days of full-on adventure racing. With lack of sleep and punishing physical routines, mistakes are easily made, sometimes with difficult-to-swallow consequences. 

Yesterday Théo de Blic (FRA3) made a costly mistake while flying down from Sion when he misjudged the position of the Sion airspace. He didn’t have it programmed into his flight instruments, and although he knew it was there, he was uncertain of the exact position. He landed right inside it, and this morning the race committee handed him a 48-hour penalty, to be served after his next period. 

“He is very sad about it”, his supporter Jules Crosier said, “but he is still pushing hard. He is on launch now actually”. Théo is currently between Turnpoints 8 and 9, near Châtel. So far he has flown 31km today and hiked 18. His plan is to make as much distance as he can before Wednesday morning, when his 48-hour penalty will start and then sadly, said Jules, “his race will be over”. 

Chrigel Maurer (SUI1) has also pulled his night pass, although he has already made the prescribed stop to sign the board at Turnpoint 11 Kronplatz, and is back in the air again, headed for Zell am See and the finish raft. The clock will stop when he lands on the raft in the middle of the lake. If it’s not flyable, he has to swim! That raft is currently just 90km away!