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14 September 2003

Gordon Bennett is exciting as ever !

Six balloons have landed in close proximity north of Bordeaux after travelling a distance of around 500km in 8-10 hours.
Leading are the LEYS brothers in FRANCE 1 followed on the heels by BELGIUM 1, Philippe DE COCK and Ronny VAN HAVERE. It looks like a neck to neck to the Portuguese coast line at the moment and the outcome will have all the excitement of a typical Gordon Bennett race. Our amateur speculations using the HYSPLITT trajectories reveal that the furthest possible point in Portugal can be reached

Following the leaders are USA1 with Richard ABRUZZO and JOHNSON Gary on board and the only female pilot Silvia WAGNER and her co-pilot Sepp SCHERZER in AUSTRIA 2. They are now over the Bay of Biscay and will have landfall soon on the Northern Spanish coast in the vicinity of Santander.
Two German teams are on their way trailing behind because of a late take-off during the windy inflation of last night but I suppose they will not give up and might also cross the Bay of Biscay.

Mathijs R. de Bruijn
ED 47th Gordon Bennett

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