Monday, May 6
    "The most beautiful cord is Amaj, Fingers don't break away", sings Karel Vrbensky with Honza Habermann on the peak of Stranik as the sun beats down once again, as if no front were to cross over at all. The 46km long return discipline is announced at the briefing, with its turning point at the Hotel Husarik at the edge of Cadce and its goal line at the saddle beneath Stranik.

    "The window is open!", calls Michael Orolin, director of the race, at precisely 12:45, while Dusan Kultan is already unpacking his chute at the southeast starting point. Evidently he has noticed the high clouds moving in from the South. At the last minute he unseals some sort of envelope (evidently bad news) and surprised, leaves the starting point. Seven minutes later Juraj Klepka and Mirek Varvarovsky come up to the start and they both fly off to catch the thermals at Maly Stranik.



    Only just after two o'clock other racers take off and the high cloudiness begins to temper the thermals. The field by Teplicka pod Stranikem quickly fills with the chutes of landing pilots, whilst Duro and Varvar patiently finish turning their first riser.






    New rides up and even walkers from the saddle at the peak of Stranik are numerous and some are even taking off for the third time. The wind is gradually turning to the South and the take offs to the southeast and to the West are becoming more and more difficult.

    In the heavy traffic and panic, ten minutes before the closing of the start window, Tomas Mrkvicka, shortly after taking off, falls to the slope from a height of ten meters. At 15:25 he is being transported to Zilina by helicopter, though we later learned that it was nothing serious.



    "Hey, doesn't it bother you that there's lightning flashing from that cloud?", Petra Krausova is heard saying on the organizer's frequency from somewhere along the route. By now it is lightening even over Terchova, thunder rumbling and it is beginning to rain over Zilina. The organizers call off the competition round, and anyway only a few pilots make it over the 15 km minimum distance. Hotel Husarik is turned only by Juraj Kleja, Grzegorz Olejnik, Jan Kupka and Petr Kostrhun.

    That evening at camp Varin most celebrate the survival of the storms, with the most vehement celebrators being those that didn't fly in the storms at all.



    So at the close of the second competition day, everyone is in the same boat, at least as far as points go, and the number of pilots on the starting list has settled at 96.