Three hours in and all athletes are in the air, spread out over the first 30km of the course line. No surprise that Maxime Pinot (FRA1), Aaron Durogati (ITA1) and Simon Oberrauner (AUT2) are all out front. It's a bigger surprise that race veterans like Gavin McClurg (USA1), Manu Nübel (GER1) and fan favourite Toma Coconea (ROU) are at the back. Don't read too much into that – this race is long. At 12 days long that's 288 hours, by the way, so every hour does count.