Intro:

Chrigel Maurer leads the Red Bull X Alps race between Salzburg and Monaco on Tuesday (7th July) after arriving at Turnpoint 4 near Lermoos, Austria ahead of the chasing pack.

Script:

Not a bad view for those choosing to paraglide on the third day of the Red Bull X Alps race. Competitors get to choose between walking or paragliding between Saltzburg and Monaco, leading the way is Switzerland's Chrigel Maurer.

SOUNDBITE: (English) Chrigel Maurer

"Yeah, it was perfect timing to go into the air and make some distance in the air. Because in the beginning it was very weak and together with Paul (Guschlbauer) we found good thermals and we could make good distance. In between, I made a mistake so Paul went in the direction Garmisch-Lermoos and I spent a lot of time quite low in the forest. But I was lucky to climb and continue the flight. Finally I was able to fly here directly to the Turnpoint 5 (actually 4) to Lermoos, so it was a flight more than 80k (kilometres)."

Maurer getting a little ahead of himself as they're only at Turnpoint 4, which is around a quarter of the way through the challenge. He leads German Sebastian Huber and Austrian Paul Guschlbauer.

The last-ranked athlete was eliminated early Wednesday morning and that dubious honour fell to Yvonne Dathe.

The German opted had to hike rather than paraglide for large sections which cost her too much time.