Greg Blondeau flying Magus 6 has dominated in this difficult competition from the first task and is now Europe Paragliding Champion 2008 !                                        

read more about the competition:                                 

1st task Today it's my day!
74km task in elapsed time. As always we left too late, waiting that other pilots go in front to show the way...In the begining we had clouds, after only blue sky...We made 2100 meters before the start but we left at 1800m because of waiting.
It was very difficult to progress on this task. The thermals were light and not everywhere thanks cirruses. I did a good part of the task with Aliaz, Thomas, Gasper and Erik. At the end the best choice was to  go back to the mountain and not be too much in a hurry!
Last thermal 10km from goal, 0.5 at 950m with Jeremy a french pilot, we turned for 25minutes and then we went to the last turn point from below and then GOAL!!!

 Cheers, Greg

2nd task Yesterday toask of 57 km, with 7 clokstart of 15 minutes. 20km/h back wind.

I flew to safe , I didn't want to take risk. I missed the best thermal on the 2/3 of the task to be able to reach 2400m....  this made me unsafe at only 1900 so I flew more and more slowly and I arrived 7 minutes after the first group....
The first pilot in goal was Mads Syndergard who flew alone (!) over mountains from the first possibly start!
Today the task is canceled. It's flyable, strong wind not turbulent but not enought thermal....

Cheers, Greg

3th task (July 8th) was race to goal with lenght of 57 km.

The 1st third of the task was slow. It was difficult to find good thermal to climb high. Then on the end of the ridge it was important to find a good line. Some pilots were too much in the wind and others were too much on the lee side. On a good place I could find a strong thermal which brought more than 2200 m. Other following pilots reached only 2000 m.I saw Thomas in front together with the Valic brothers but they were lower. They didn't find quickly a thermal to climb up again. We continued in front with the Swedish pilot who won. We made the last turn point together and went to goal with a glide of 14. It was too optimistic, the final glide become tricky...
The flat was generous so we could find a thermal to take a little bit altitude. Johannsson passed the line with 15 meters, I Arrived 10 sec later with less than 100m. The task was stopped 30mn after our arrival because a front was coming.

Today it's windy but it is good chance to fly this afternoon.

Cheers, Greg

Third Task:
1st JOHANNSSON
2nd BLONDEAU
3rd WATTS
11  DROIN
19 BRAUNER

Overall 3 tasks:
1 BLONDEAU
2 LAGER
3 MORGENTHALER

4th task (July 10th) Small report from today:

Today task of 74,5 km with clock start of 20minutes. Cloud base at 2500m After 3 o'clock they canceled the task because the wind was too strong.
20km/h in altitude of 2000m but more in the valley because of valley wind.

Greg.
 

Hi there,

today 5th and last task of Europeans 2008: 51kms race to goal with 5 turn points and goal in Niska Banja, where the headquater is placed. Before the start, we succeed to reach 2500 m altitude in a good thermal (not as usually). As the French team and Greg Blondeau are first in the overall ranking and me only 13rd, I decide to lead the race to be able to give permanent informations to them by radio.
Before the final glide, we were a small gaggle of 7 wings leading the race with 5 maguses: Gasper, Yassen, Erik, Craig ang me. Craig win the task in front of Thomas.

In overall:
1st Greg Blondeau
2nd Andy Aeby
3rd Jeremy Lager

Women:
1st Eva Wienerska
2nd Anja Kroll
3rd Elisa Houdry

Nations
1st France
2ndSwitzerland
3rd Italy

King regards
Stef Drouin
 

www.eupgserbia2008.com

Photos by azoom.ch ---------------------------------------------------------------