Maurer Claims Back-to-Back Red Bull X-Alps Victories

Christian Maurer has won the Red Bull X-Alps for the second consecutive year as the Swiss athlete proved too strong for a 30-man field of competitors. At 4:22pm local time on Thursday 28^th July, Maurer touched down at the finishing point in the Principality of Monaco with his paraglider, bringing to an end a gruelling 11 days of competition.

With support from professional mountain guide Thomas Theurillat, Maurer completed the race after 1,321km of flying and another 486km of hiking on foot across the Alps. The Interlaken athlete dominated the event and had built up a lead of around 160km by the time he made the final flight into Monaco with his rivals only having just reached Mt. Blanc by the same stage.

Despite a 24 hour penalty in Zermatt for flying too high earlier in the race, Maurer still arrived at the finishing point two days before second placed Toma Coconea of Romania, who led the race in the first few days.

Austrian Paul Guschlbauer was 9km away from the finishing point when the race came to an end and was classified in third. No other athletes made it to the finish line within 48 hours of the winner with Britain's Jon Chambers coming fifth, just behind Martin Muller who ensured two Swiss athletes finished in the top four.

2011 Red Bull X-Alps Result:

Pos	Athlete	Nation	Time/Distance Behind
1	Christian Maurer	Switzerland	11d 4h 52m
2	Toma Coconea	Romania	13d 3h
3	Paul Guschlbauer	Austria	+9km
4	Martin Muller	Switzerland	+73km
5	Jon Chambers	United Kingdom	+113km
6	Michael Gebert	Germany	+172km
7	Ferdinand van Schelven	Netherlands	+173km
8	Clement Latour	France	+174km
9	Jouni Makkonen	Finland	+176km
10	Honza Reimanek	United States	+181km
11	Thomas de Dorlodot	Belgium	+183km
12	Evgenli Griaznov	Russia	+241km
13	Helmut Eichholzer	Austria	+246km
14	Max Fanderl	Canada	+305km
=	Andy Frotscher	Italy	+305km
16	Richard Pethigal	Brazil	+327km
17	Pawel Faron	Poland	+350km
18	Oriol Fernandez	Spain	+389km