Toulon takes the lead

An update from the Tour Voile, now in Honfleur

The Parisian boat Espoir Ile de France won the Olympic triangle race today in Honfleur. Despite a huge disappointment when they heard on the VHF that London (and not Paris) will be hosting the Olympic Games in 2012, the young amateur team of Espoir Ile de France managed to finish first this afternoon, in front of Bouygues Télécom and their “big brother”, Region Ile de France. In a 90% French fleet, a few British sailors are celebrating the Olympic Committee’s decision.

On board the student boat Alfa Laval, most of the crews are studying at Southampton Institute and some of them are British. As crewman Oli Pandelton observed: “I was sure London would win and five minutes before the announcement I was very nervous because I thought 'now if we don’t win the Olympic gig, I am going to look very stupid'. Fortunately we did win it so I was very, very happy !”

Jo Riley added: “it’s a great news for England. The sailing competitions are going to be in Weymouth and it’s a very nice place so I am very happy!”

British Figaro sailor, Sam Davies is divided between her joy for her country and her sadness for France, where she spends most of her time racing in the Figaro class: “I am very happy for London, but it’s a strange atmosphere here because it’s a French race, in a French town, with French people so it’s a bit sombre. It’s difficult to be too happy because a lot of people are really disappointed here”.

In the overall ranking, Toulon Provence Méditerranée Coychyères is still leading but with their second position at the finish today, Bouygues Télécom is catching up a bit (3 points).

The Mumm 30 fleet was supposed to leave Honfleur tonight for the longest offshore race to Saint Malo (155 miles) of the Tour de France à la Voile, but the Race Committee finally decided to delay it to 5.00 in the morning tomorrow.

“The wind is going to blow between 20 and 25 knots tonight, with gusts of 35," said René Boulaire, President of the Race Committee. "It’s not disastrous, but the problem is the wind direction from the north-west. The boats would have to spend about 10 hours upwind before arriving off Barfleur (corner of Cherboug) where the current will then be very strong and against them. Leaving at 5.00, things will be a bit easier for them”.

Results:

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Tot
1	TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE COYCHyères	Fabien HENRY	282
2	BOUYGUES TELECOM	Pierre Loïc BERTHET	257
3	DIEPPE SEINE-MARITIME	Romain GIBON	234
4	DEFI PARTAGE – MARSEILLE	Thierry BOUCHARD / Dimitri DERUELLE	225
5	COURRIER DUNKERQUE	Gery TRENTESAUX	221
6	ALPES-MARITIMES MANDELIEU THEOULE	Sylvain CHTOUNDER	218
7	VILLE DE GENEVE CARREFOUR PREVENTION	Julien DI BIASE	215
8	ESPOIR ILE DE FRANCE	Jean-pierre NICOL / Victor LANIER	198
9	CSC – ESSEC	Hervé GAUTIER	191
10	ESPOIRS AQUITAINS	J.P.ALLILIAIRE/X.CANTEGREL/P.DENTRAYGUES/J.FALXA	182
11	REGION ILE DE FRANCE	Jimmy PAHUN / Nicolas PAUCHET	180
12	ALFA LAVAL	Yoann RICHOMME	179
13	VILLE DU PORT BRED LA REUNION	Marc GUESSARD / Gabriel JEAN-ALBERT	176
14	COTES D’ARMOR	Michaël AVELINE	175
15	BELVEDERE – EDC – EBSCO	Tanguy FOURNIER LE RAY	172
16	NANTES SAINT-NAZAIRE	Sebastien PETITHUGUENIN / Gaëtan AUNETTE	165
17	PERPIGNAN MEDITERRANEE	Paul McKENZIE	157
18	EMINENCE – MARSEILLE	Parade KINY	154
19	PORT DE COMMERCE LA ROCHELLE	Alexandre MERCIER	151
20	BIENNE – VOILE	R. HARTMANN / N. BERGER / C. KNOLL	142
21	STAD GENT / VILLE DE GAND	Philippe BERGMANS / Bernard WILMET	140
22	VAN UDEN TUDELFT	Gert VAN DER HEIJDEN / Berend-Jan EDENS	137
23	DEFI GRANDES ECOLES TOTAL INSA	Anne Claire LE BERRE	118
24	T SERVICE INTERIM REGION DE BRUXELLES-CAPITALE	Laurent DECLERCQ / Jean-Marc FOBERT	115
25	DEFI AMI – AVAYA - X - ENSAM	Olivier HONTANX	113
26	DEFI SCLEROSE EN PLAQUES	Stéphane VENEL	108
27	BREST GRANDES ECOLES ENSIETA ENST-BRETAGNE	Bertrand DE BROC / A. PALLU DE LA BARRIERE	105
28	EIGSI – CHARENTE MARITIME	Antoine ALBARET	104
29	AMEC SPIE	Eric BASSET	89
30	HEC GAMELIN MECENAT CHIRURGIE CARDIAQUE	Ryan PARKIN	87.5