In paragliding competitions everyone starts at the same time.

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Task 8 of the 2017 Paragliding World Cup Super Final, Roldanillo - Colombia (read from the bottom up):

12:53 These adjustments were incorporated into the 2016 scoring. Further data was used to make more adjustments for the 2017 season to encourage pilots to fly ahead of the gaggle to get a consistent reward. So far no more changes have been made for the 2018 season.

12:52 The committee also changed the distribution of lead out and time points for safety reasons so as not to encourage pilots to push full bar to ESS at the end of a race.

12:52 The Paragliding World Cup committee recognised that the reward in no way reflected the endeavour and that the pilot who had led out for virtually the whole task should have been the winner.

12:52 In the final scores, Marko was tenth, with only 26 leadout points more than the following gaggle.

12:52 About 15 km from goal the gaggle over took him. Marko, who had been leading the whole way, crossed ESS 12^th, 4 minutes behind the first pilot.

12:51 A major factor in the recent increase in lead out points came following task 1 in the Paragliding World Cup in Bir, India in 2015. Marko Novak flew almost the whole task (nearly 100km) several kilometres in front of the gaggle, alone.

12:51 They will then catch up with the others, who are very kindly marking the thermals ahead of them and all arrive in goal together. But the lead out point baggers will have an unbeatable bonus from the start ? Crafty or what!

12:51 Just after the Start look out for pilots following the course line exactly, really pushing out but risking getting low is a sure sign of a confirmed lead out point bagger, or lead out point addict. They want to be at the front as much as possible along the course line, even if it means risking being low.

12:50 The lead out points add a big dose of tactics to the race. It's always interesting to see who is 'harvesting lead out points', (especially at the beginning when they are more heavily weighted), a phenomenon of pilot we call a 'lead out point bagger'.

12:49 Don't forget that in this first part of the race the lead out points are much more heavily weighted than later on in the race.

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