Parabatix France 2014 :: Icarobatix – Coupe Icare

Once again the stakes were set high for our Parabatix Sky Racers, sky racing at altitude in the Rhone Alps at the 41st Coupe Icare in front of 90,000+ spectators over an action-packed three day weekend.

With tough weather conditions at the top of the mountain at St Hilaire the whole Sky Race course was at times totally  emerged in the clouds that gathered around the mountain tops. A mystical location for spectators who watched attentively as our sky race took place just meters away; smoke, high-G, low-to-the-ground maneuvers were all in order for this 2014 Parabatix aerial race show here in France!

Right from day one it was clear that French Sky Racer Alex Mateos was back to defend his winning title from last year, swiftly followed by the Spaniard Champion  Paco Guerra, and his French counter parts Jeremy Penone and Pascal Vallée who all had their sights set on the podium.

Some unfortunate up-and-down luck for Paco on the Freestyle Race where he swooped-up while coming out of a high energy turn and even while stretching his foot out as far as he could in his harness, he still missed the timing stick by a few millimeters, costing him the race and pushing his overall score down.  Paco then came back strong to win the next ‘Special Sky Race’ in the next round with an excellent track time of 33 seconds beating both Alex and Jeremy hands down!