Berthet first into Cherbourg

Crews exhausted after offshore race in Tour Voile

At 2110 GMT, Bouygues Telecom crossed the finish line off Port Chantereyne in Cherbourg Octeville. The favourites of the event scored their first victory and it was with an elated 'That’s it!' that skipper Pierre-Loïc Berthet set foot on the pontoon.

Yannick Simon confirmed that "it was really hard, even a little severe." Pierre-Lo continued that "the winches heated up so much we had to soak them almost continuously and we even broke two new spinnaker sheets through wear." As they spoke their osteopath was at work on the crew still aboard the boat, well and truly shot after 100 miles under spinnaker in 20 knots…

It was the same scene on Theoule Mandelieu where skipper, Sylvain Chtounder, admitted his fatigue, while savouring a third place which he did well to hang onto throughout the leg.

Repeating their performance from the previous leg, CSC-Essec was awarded a second place an impressive performance among the pro fleet for this amateur crew.

Toulon Provence Mediterranee Coych, leader of the race for a long time, finished seventh after some navigation errors that were put down to lack of experience. It was a similar problem for Defi Partage-Marseille who were unable to maintain their performance after a great comeback earlier in the day.

Meantime the Americans on Groovederci and the Swiss sailors on Ville de Geneve
Carrefour Prevention managed to keep up their now regular appearance in the top ten with a worthy fifth and eighth place respectively.

Order of arrival from the Dieppe to Cherbourg Octeville leg.
1 BOUYGUES TELECOM
2 CSC - ESSEC
3 THEOULE MANDELIEU
4 REGION ILE DE FRANCE
5 GROOVEDERCI (USA)
6 DIEPPE SEINE MARITIME
7 TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE COYCH
8 VILLE DE GENEVE CARREFOUR PREVENTION (Switzerland)
9 MARSEILLE UNIVERSITES VILLE DE BANDOL
10 VILLE DU PORT BRED LA REUNION
11 DEFI SCLEROSE EN PLAQUES - LEONARD DE VINCI
12 DEFI PARTAGE - MARSEILLE
13 ESPOIRS AQUITAINS
14 DOUARNENEZ - VOILE MAGAZINE
15 BIENNE-VOILE
16 COTES D’ARMOR
17 PORT DE COMMERCE LA ROCHELLE ESTUDINES.COM
18 DEFI GRANDES ECOLES TOTAL INSA
19 DEFI JEAN BART
20 BREST GRANDES ECOLES ENSIETA ENST-BRETAGNE
21 EIGSI LA ROCHELLE CHARENTE-MARITIME
22 TEPACAP
23 DEFI DON DU SANG ALLIBERT HEC-ESC GRENOBLE-X
24 BELVEDERE - FORCE EDC & LES COPAINS A BORD
25 NANTES SAINT NAZAIRE
26 PSA PEUGEOT CITROËN
27 ALFA LAVAL (UK)
28 T SERVICE INTERIM REGION DE BRUXELLES CAPITALE / BRUSSELS HOOFDSTEDELIJK
GEWEST (Belgium)
29 PERPIGNAN MEDITERRANEE
30 DELFT CHALLENGE TU DELFT (Holland)