Fifth win for Defi Partage Marseille

Tour Voile reaches the Cote d'Azur's Sainte-Maxime

The 11th offshore leg between Hyères and Sainte-Maxime, the shortest of this Tour de France à la Voile 2005, showed a very tight fight between the three boats leading the overall results and an Amateur team, Belvedere-EDC-EBSCO. But first to cross the finish line in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez was Defi Partage Marseille, winning her fifth race.

Three days before the last leg in Menton, the team from Marseille is now 23 points from Bouygues Telecom, second in the overall results. In the Amateur and Student Rankings, there are now two new leaders in Espoir Ile de France and Port de Commerce la Rochelle.

Defi Partage Marseille crossed the finish line off Sainte-Maxime, almost two minutes before Belvedere-EDC-EBSCO. “We know this place very well," said Thierry Bouchard, co-skipper of the winning Mumm 30 with Dimitri Deruelle. "Most of the crews on board sail around here, so I think that was an advantage today”.



The amateur crew on Belvedere-EDC-EBSCO seemed to relish the Mediterranean conditions as this was their second podium position in two days. “This race was very interesting," said François Brenac, four time winner of the Tour de France à la Voile and helmsman of the Amateur boat. "Every time we were turning left, the wind was shifting with us, so we were upwind all the time. We needed to look for the local effects onshore. I think we now found the energy we had been missing onboard. The atmosphere is really good. We have everything to keep doing well”.

The fight for third and fourth position, was very tight between the two overall leaders, the Red Spinnaker of Toulon Provence Mediterranee Coychyères sailing neck to neck with her main rival, Bouygues Telecom. Finally it was Pierre Loïc Berthet and his team who grabbed third position. “We missed a tactical opportunity in a bay before Cap Camarat where we lost two places," said navigator Philippe Mourniac. "So at the finish, we really wanted to come back in the game. We are very happy with this performance”.

After this leg (1.5 coefficient), Toulon Provence Mediterranee Coychyères is still leading the overall results by a comfortable margin. But in third position, Defi Partage Marseille keeps gaining some ground over Bouygues Telecom. In the Amateur results, the average result of Ville du Port Bred la Reunion and CSC ESSEC today allowed Espoir Ile de France to regain the lead. Belvedere-EDC-EBSCO is still 4th but is closing on the the third boat. In the Student Results, Port de Commerce la Rochelle has taken over the lead from the Southampton Institute team on Alfa Laval.

Tomorrow, the competitors will start two inshore races in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, at 12.30, local time.

More photos on page 2...

Results:

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Tot
1	TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE COYCHyères	Fabien HENRY	1134
2	BOUYGUES TELECOM	Pierre Loïc BERTHET	1062
3	DEFI PARTAGE – MARSEILLE	Thierry BOUCHARD / Dimitri DERUELLE	1039
4	ALPES-MARITIMES MANDELIEU THEOULE	Sylvain CHTOUNDER	1003
5	DIEPPE SEINE-MARITIME	Romain GIBON	986
6	REGION ILE DE FRANCE	Jimmy PAHUN / Nicolas PAUCHET	975
7	VILLE DE GENEVE CARREFOUR PREVENTION	Julien DI BIASE/Denis GIRARDET/Bastien CLEMENT	962
8	COURRIER DUNKERQUE	Gery TRENTESAUX	950.5
9	ESPOIR ILE DE FRANCE	Jean-Pierre NICOL / Victor LANIER	923.5
10	CSC – ESSEC	Hervé GAUTIER	886.5
11	VILLE DU PORT BRED LA REUNION	Marc GUESSARD / Gabriel JEAN-ALBERT	869
12	BELVEDERE – EDC – EBSCO	Tanguy FOURNIER LE RAY	846
13	PORT DE COMMERCE LA ROCHELLE	Alexandre MERCIER	820
14	NANTES SAINT-NAZAIRE	Sebastien PETITHUGUENIN / Gaëtan AULNETTE	817.5
15	PERPIGNAN MEDITERRANEE	Paul McKENZIE	815
16	ALFA LAVAL	Yoann RICHOMME	811.5
17	BIENNE – VOILE	R. HARTMANN / N. BERGER / C. KNOLL	790.5
18	DEFI SCLEROSE EN PLAQUES	Stéphane VENEL	706
19	COTES D’ARMOR	Michaël AVELINE	705
20	ESPOIRS AQUITAINS	J.P.ALLILIAIRE/X.CANTEGREL/J.FALXA	689.5
21	VAN UDEN TUDELFT	Gert VAN DER HEIJDEN	667
22	DEFI GRANDES ECOLES TOTAL INSA	Anne Claire LE BERRE	666
23	EMINENCE – MARSEILLE	Kiny PARADE	662
24	BREST GRANDES ECOLES ENSIETA ENST-BRETAGNE	Gildas MAHE	648
25	DEFI AMI – AVAYA - X - ENSAM	Olivier HONTANX	616
26	STAD GENT / VILLE DE GAND	Philippe BERGMANS / Bernard WILMET	613.5
27	AMEC SPIE	Eric BASSET	562
28	EIGSI – CHARENTE MARITIME	Antoine ALBARET	551.5
29	T SERVICE INTERIM REGION DE BRUXELLES-CAPITALE	Laurent DECLERCQ / Jean-Marc FOBERT	530
30	HEC GAMELIN MECENAT CHIRURGIE CARDIAQUE	Ryan PARKIN	505