Split second finish

Leg one of the Tour Voile arrives in Dieppe

At 1947 GMT the crew of Theoule Mandelieu crossed the Dieppe finish line in driving rain to take victory in this first leg of the Tour de France à la Voile, after 15h and 36 minutes of “trying” racing, according to skipper Sylvain Chtounder. Just 17 seconds after them the amateur division crew on CSC - ESSEC followed, trailed 22 seconds later by Pierre Loick Berthet's Bouygues Telecom team from Nantes who had been in the lead at the last ranking. A relentless battle then between the top three boats has set the stage for the 2004 Tour Voile, the leader chopping and changing constantly in the closing mments of this led.

According to Benoît Rouaud, crew aboard the winning boat: “the team communicates very well, which isn’t necessarily the case when manoeuvring. There are a number of us who are interchangeable and we changed our aft positions a lot. The strength of the project is that the base of the team is really used to sailing together and in addition to that the boat moves very quickly”.

Behind them the Swiss team on Ville de Geneve-Carrefour Prevention had a great leg, stealing past the American class leader Grooverderci, to take fourth place. “We sailed well at the start of the leg. We’re learning, we’re learning” enthused co-skipper Denis Girardet.

The torrential rain that greeted the arrivals then eased and little by little the pontoons emptied with the sailors taking a short respite before tomorrow’s legs off the cliffs of Dieppe.