On January 11th, one day prior to the actual race, the “White Party” was held in the Monzabon Eishalle to commemorate the 3rd “White Ring Race”  Before the festivities began, “racing legends” competed in a hotly contested race for the coveted VIP starting positions. 

The 18 participants included well-known names such as Sigrid Wolf, Hubert Strolz, Marc Giradelli, Petra Haltmayr, Edith Zimmermann-Rhomberg, Heike Türtscher, Patrick Ortlieb and Tom Stiansen, who won the Schlegelkopf grand slalom with a 27-hundreths of a second lead over second-placed Marc Girardelli.  Local favourite Patrick Ortlieb took third place, which nevertheless did not keep him from taking the ‘home field advantage’ victory on the following day.  Afterwards, the Monzabon Eishalle and the illustrious party of guests presented themselves attired completely in white, embodying the “White” motto with a creativity second to none (see Michael Manhart photo).  The emotional highpoint of the official portion came on the heels of the victory award ceremony as the cheque for 4000€ was presented to Heike Türtscher.  The former squad skier suffered an accident during grand slalom training in November of 2006 and has been paraplegic ever since.  The Kästle company, together with Lech-based companies Monzabon and Elisabeth as well as Skipool West and Lech Zürs Tourism put together a VIP Package which was auctioned by Swabian Lech - Zürs guests Ingo Hell and Winfried Schmidt via the platform www.monte-welt.de.  The head of Skilifte Lech, Michael Manhart, and Tourism Director Gerhard Walter presented the cheque to the congenial young athlete, who could not be dissuaded before from participating herself in the legendary race with Monoski.  The evening wrapped up with ‘loungy’ sounds in a white atmosphere that went on well past midnight, safe in the knowledge that there was no ‘early wake-up call’ for racing on the following day.