French Teenager Almost Flawless at KiteFoil World Championships The young French rider Axel Mazella showed his class and growing pace at the KiteFoil GoldCup with a string of bullets on a day when all the top racers found themselves competing in the same fleet for the first time. Mazella used his Taaroa Sword2 foil and F-one Diablo2 kite to clinical effect taking three wins from the “gold” fleet’s four races, with even a misstep in the day’s final race when he posted fifth, failing to prevent him topping the leaderboard. For the most part in the difficult gusty and shifty conditions with large waves on the track off Hang Loose Beach, Gizzeria, in southern Italy, he seemed to have the measure of his old foe Maxime Nocher (MON), the reigning International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) KiteFoil GoldCup champion. The Italian-Colombian kite racing veteran Riccardo Leccese also seemed to have few answers to the French teenager’s scorching pace, though the four third places he snatched from four races earned him a solid second place in the standings just ahead of Nocher. Racers, who were divided into three fleets for the medals series on day three of the IKA kitefoil world championships’ opening …
KiteFoil World Championships
2016 IKA KiteFoil Gold Cup Italy – Day Two
Former Title Holder Gruber Revels in Tricky Conditions at KiteFoil World Championships Opener Germany’s Florian Gruber shrugged off the mixed bag of weather that played havoc with the racing schedule at the KiteFoil GoldCup in Italy to snatch a flawless two victories from two races. In a break-neck dash for the line in his day’s final race the former Formula kite world champion crashed spectacularly just as he crossed to see off rival, reigning International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) KiteFoil GoldCup title holder, Maxime Nocher (MON). It was the second time of the day the invariably imperious Nocher had just lost out to Gruber, who feels he is finding his a winning grove on his prototype Flysurfer Sonic foil kites and Levitaz Aspect Bionic hydrofoil in the shifty and gusty conditions that mirror his home training spot. Day two of the four-day competition, the first of a four-stop world tour, began with light on-shore breezes that built quickly to allow the three fleets out on the track off Gizzeria’s Hang Loose Beach on their biggest 15m and 18m kites. But after three races, one for each fleet, racing was suspended with the approach of squalls that swirled around the Calabrian hills …
2016 IKA KiteFoil Gold Cup Italy – Day One
Gusty Winds and Tough Conditions Test Racers’ Mettle at KiteFoil World Championships Act 1 Margins separating the world’s leading kitefoilers are extremely fine. Reigning European and KiteFoil GoldCup champion, Monegasque rider Maxime Nocher, almost had a perfect day but was literally pipped at the post. Florian Trittel (ESP) just overhauled Nocher on a searing reach to the finish on their last race of the day, but in doing so the Spaniard caught a mark line with his foil and was catapulted off his board. Still, it was enough to secure a win and deprive Nocher of five bullets from five races. French rider Axel Mazella and Italian Riccardo Leccese, competing in the other two of three race fleets on day one of the International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) KiteFoil GoldCup at Gizzeria, southern Italy, suffered no similar misfortunes. Each racked up five wins in their respective fleets to leave them equal top in the standings. By dint of Nocher’s second place finish, which was dispensed with when discards kicked-in after five races, he found himself in third position but remained equal in the day’s overall points’ standings. On the track off Hang Loose Beach, in the shadow of dramatic Calabrian hills, …
2016 IKA KiteFoil Gold Cup Italy – Day One
Gusty Winds and Tough Conditions Test Racers’ Mettle at KiteFoil World Championships Act 1 Margins separating the world’s leading kitefoilers are extremely fine. Reigning European and KiteFoil GoldCup champion, Monegasque rider Maxime Nocher, almost had a perfect day but was literally pipped at the post. Florian Trittel (ESP) just overhauled Nocher on a searing reach to the finish on their last race of the day, but in doing so the Spaniard caught a mark line with his foil and was catapulted off his board. Still, it was enough to secure a win and deprive Nocher of five bullets from five races. French rider Axel Mazella and Italian Riccardo Leccese, competing in the other two of three race fleets on day one of the International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) KiteFoil GoldCup at Gizzeria, southern Italy, suffered no similar misfortunes. Each racked up five wins in their respective fleets to leave them equal top in the standings. By dint of Nocher’s second place finish, which was dispensed with when discards kicked-in after five races, he found himself in third position but remained equal in the day’s overall points’ standings. On the track off Hang Loose Beach, in the shadow of dramatic Calabrian hills, …
