End good, all good!

 As required by the rules, France will be the organizer of the 55th Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett 2011. The 2010 edition will leave from England, whose team won the 2008 edition in Albuquerque (USA).

It was an unbelievable exciting race with plucky landings on difficult places.

Our pilots would be happy to be in Spain or Portugal too but at the same time they are proud to be within the first pilots who did fly to Africa with a normal gas balloon… and it ‘s very warm in Algeria also.

BEL 1 want to say ‘thank you very much’ to everyone who helped us in Belgium and also there in Algeria.

The 3 ‘African teams’ and their balloons are together in Algiers now and hope to come to Europe soon… When? That’s the question!

Online articles:

F.A.I. – Leys and Rolland win the 53rd Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett

Het Laatste Nieuws – Belgische ballonvaarders op weg naar Portugal stranden ten oosten van Algiers

Het Nieuwsblad – Belgische ballonvaarders landen onverwacht in Algerije

Sportwereld – Belgische ballonvaarders landen onverwacht in Algerije

Deredactie.be – Meloenen i.p.v. porto: ballonvaarders uit koers

De Standaard – Ballonvaarders mikken op Spanje en landen in Algerije

De Telegraaf – Belgische ballonvaarders landen in verkeerd continent

Liberté Algérie – Trois montgolfières atterrissent en Kabylie

Le Soir – Fin de course incroyable

Le Soir – L’arrivée de la Gordon Bennett

Le Soir – 53è Gordon Bennett à Genève

TSA – Deux Finlandais blessés dans un atterrissage forcé de trois montgolfières près de Tizi Ouzou

Nord éclair – Vincent Leys, aérostier en route pour le 5e ciel

Nord éclair – CLIC… CLAC

Aéronautique – La France remporte la 53e Coupe aéronautique Gordon Bennett

Maineville Presque Ile – Presque Isle native in international balloon race

University of Nottingham – Record breaking balloonist does it again

University of Manchester – Sky is the limit for Manchester’s record breaking researcher

Manchester Evening News – Women record holders on a high

Bangordailynews – Balloon on trek lands in Spain

Loop aero – FRENCH PILOTS WIN GORDON BENNETT

Zürcher Unterlander – Im Notfall fliegt der Proviant raus

Tribune de Genève – La Suisse battue sur le fil lors de la Coupe Gordon Bennett

The Miracle Balloon – The Coupe Aeronautique Gordon Bennett

Oltner Tagblatt – Schwebend die Welt von oben sehen

With the safe landing of the last team – Sébastien Rolland / Vincent Leys – the 53^e. Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett came to an end.

What an epic race. Bravo à lous les équipages. Pilots and teams well done.

You all promoted gasballooning in the best possible way. We are all thankful for your flights which we could watch on the screens. We are looking forward to welcoming you safely back home.

Preliminary Results

These are the preliminary ranks of this year’s Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett:

1. FRA 1, Sébastien ROLLAND / Vincent LEYS
2. SUI 1, Kurt FRIEDEN / Pascal WITPRAECHTIGER
3. USA 2, Mark SULLIVAN / Cheryl WHITE

The official results will not be published before friday night (possibly saturday morning) because all the data will have to be evaluated in the pilot debriefing. Teams will not be back before friday. However, so far, we believe the ranking to be accurate.

From Algiers, they will try to get onto a ferry to Marseille… it seems that they’re not yet home but everything looks well coordinated by the ambassadors and the mood in Algeria is very good. What an adventure!

In a few hours this Gordon Bennett race 2009 will be over and the top 3 known. We can say it now: it was one of the most exciting and thrilling races of the last years. We see again that flying to the south is not so easy for the pilots and certainly not for the meteorologist.

And now we hope that FRA 1 makes a safe landing! Results as soon as FRA1 has landed!

But the race is still going on with two more teams aloft…

09.09.2009 0430: Team SUI 1 (Frieden/Witpraechtiger) landed safely

 Kurt Frieden called to report about a safe landing. The two pilots had finished their race across Europe in huge eucalyptus fields within 10 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.

Credits http://www.ballon.eu/2009_coupe_eboard.html

(by double-clicking on the playing movies you can watch them in fullscreen mode!)

Balloons Gordon Bennett 2009

Start BEL1 (Van Havere / Van Geyte)

Start FIN1 (Luoma / Mattsson)

Start FRA1 Golden Eyes (Rolland / Lëys)

Preparation Golden Eyes

Start FRA2 (Villey-Desmeserets / Pelard) & Homage to Serge Cuhat

Start GBR1 (Hempleman-Adams / Carey)

Start GER2 (Hora / Löschhorn)

Start SUI1 (Frieden / Wittprächtiger)

Start SUI2 (Stoll / Mattenberger)

Start AUT1 (Stürzlinger / Binder)

Start GBR2 (Folkes / Rich)

Start GER1 (Eimers / Seel)

Start GER3 (Höhl / Sellmaier)

Start SUI3 (Krebs / Vollenweider)

Start USA1 (Fricke / Cuneo)

Start USA2 (Sullivan / White)

Start USA3 (Cayton / Canders)

Diaporama Coupe Gordon Bennett 2009 à Vessy (Ch)

The hotair balloons were present too…
Balloon Glow Coupe Gordon Bennett 2009 à Vessy (Ch)