German Open, Task 2: 70 km around 4 TP

Yesterday was cancelled due to a front passing through, and today after a night of rain we were looking down on cloud base at first. But soon the sun heated up the air and we started into a 70 km task around 4 turnpoints at 14.45. It sounds late, but the day really just started then.
It was very difficult after leaving launch and staying high in the start radius, because base was only at 1700m, and lift was broken, swept away from many different wind directions. Some of the leading pilots had a hard time - Andre and Roland landed already without making the start radius, and so did Toni Raumauf.
I got very low and slowly grovelled back up, but I never managed to catch up with the top 5 guys ahead of me. I kept seeing them, but thermals were not evenly spread and also the headwind to the 2nd turnpoint out in the flatlands killed me. I got about half way of the total distance. Alex won the day again, even ahead of the rigid wing guys who had to fly 80 km today! Second in was Bob Baier and 3rd was Primoz! Wolfi Siess impressed the paraglider pilots on Tegelberg today when he came up for a reflight and set up his glider in barely 5 minutes, ready to launch... and he kept that speed, he made it all the way to the 3rd turnpoint, into the top 10 of the day.
I have no idea if today will score a lot, as many pilots landed early, but the top 10 might get shuffled around a bit.
Norbert Kirchner won the rigid wing race today, he had an exciting day of flatland flying and liked it very much. He said he basically started his final glide from 23 km out, as he had tail wind and a nice line of clouds ahead. He will be hard to beat tomorrow!
Forecast for tomorrow: There could be a short last task possible!
Tonight we have a pilots dinner at the tent at goal, the community of Schwangau invited us.
You can watch the comp on TV in Germany, tomorrow evening at 6pm on BR at Abendschau, same on Sunday, and also late in "Sport am Sonntag" on Sunday at 22.15. Inbetween don´t miss "The Race" on RTL 2 at 18.00 where I fly against a Ferrari, also from Tegelberg. Lots of hang gliding on German TV, I will post links to download those shows as soon as they are up on the DHV home page.