Pre-Worlds task 1: 123km around 4 tp

When I arrived in Annecy yesterday, I couldn´t resist the blue water and had to go for a swim first of all. A bit chilly, the big blue mountain lake, but really nice and refreshing after a long drive!
Today the opening briefing took a while before we headed up the Forclaz take off at around 11am. The days here start late, we launch towards the northwest, so there was no rush. Our start gate didn´t even open until 15.30!
We are about 50 pilots at the French Open, 7 women compete at the women´s pre worlds, about 30 rigid wing pilots are here, and 7 class 2 gliders which are being towed up from the goal field.
Our task was 123km around 4 turnpoints, but I doubt that anybody made goal today. The wind just got too strong, climbs were quite broken, and cloud base not really high. Very impressive terrain. I landed on rolling hills and I was very happy that the pilots who were already on the ground showed me the wind direction, as it was changing quite a bit in gusts up to 30 km/h.
I only flew about half the course, while Jörg and Stefan headed on towards the 3rd turnpoint but then landed at the goal field without the last one. Certainly a day for heavy pilots later in the day with that strong head wind we had to face towards the 3rd turnpoint.
It was an interesting first day, and I really hope that we see some better days here that are a bit easier to fly than today!