Red Bull X-Alps
Benoît Outters Battles to Beat the Clock
Press Release / 30.06.2021
He has spent more than 90 hours hiking over 550km. In the past 36 hours alone he has hiked over 120km, yet today, on Day 11 of the Red Bull X-Alps, the race’s most extraordinary endurance athlete Benoît Outters (FRA2) showed no sign of slacking off the pace as he set his sights on the finish line – by foot.
With a low-pressure system causing unfavorable conditions including rain and thunderstorms across much of the Alps, athletes were forced to shoulder their rucksacks and continue the epic race on the ground today.
The race ends at 11:30AM on Friday July 2nd, and the remaining 17 athletes in the race were painfully aware that the clock was against them if they wanted to reach the goal of Zell am See, a picturesque lakeside resort near Salzburg, Austria.
By mid-afternoon, it looked as though only one athlete had a good chance of making the finish line – a landing float, 100m from shore, and that was the Frenchman Benoît Outters. “It’s fine, he’s in a good mood and he will walk to Schmittenhöhe,” his supporter Martin Beaujouan said. He added that they were hoping to make the final Turnpoint by 8PM and glide down to the finish raft right afterwards. “If we have to walk it will be a punishment,” he added.
Outters isn’t the only athlete covering incredible distances on foot. The race’s legendary Toma Coconea (ROU), who has competed in every edition since 2003, has also hiked some incredible distances. The so-called ‘Romanian running man’, a nickname he was given after running most of the way to second place in 2011, has so far hiked 610km in 97 hours in this year’s race, averaging almost 5km an hour.
Ulrich Grill, race organizer and founder, said: “With four athletes in goal and most of the other ones still a long way back, the race has become a brutal mental game. Do I give up? Do I fight for a better position? Do I make it to goal? The next 48 hours on Live Tracking offer a ringside seat on this endgame as these athletes stoically push on against the odds.”
But there were some athletes who had managed to take advantage of breaks in the weather today to get into the air. They included veterans Paul Guschlbauer (AUT1) and Aaron Durogati (ITA1). They both enjoyed long flights and succeeded in passing Turnpoint 10, Piz Palü. However, their chances of reaching Zell am See before the clock stops on Friday were diminishing by the hour. With over 200km still to go, they would need perfect conditions to cover that. And for Durogati, that was all but impossible. Today, he received a 12-hour penalty for violating airspace, which he must serve after his next rest period. As he decided to pull a Night Pass today, he will try to cover as much ground as possible before serving his sentence on Friday morning.
The only other athlete to pull a Night Pass is 61-year-old Kaoru Ogisawa (JAP1), battling at the back of the field near Lake Geneva as he prepares to tag Turnpoint 8, Dent d’Oche.
The race goes on. Follow the remaining athletes via Live Tracking on redbullxalps.com.
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