Marseille just ahead

As Tour Voile Mumm 30s leave the Atlantic by truck

The Tour Voile Mumm 30s had to sail two inshore race this afternoon in Royan. With two podiums (second, and first), Toulon Provence Mediterranee Coycheres seems to have laid their cards on the table before the second part of the TFV course in the Mediterranean, their favorite playing ground. In the overall ranking, Fabien Henry and his crew are now 7th, 20 points behind Cotes d'Armor. The other big Mediterranean team, Defi Partage Marseille, missed this last day in the Atlantic, finishing 22nd in the first race, and retiring the second after hitting one mark. Despite these results, they are still at the top of the scoreboard, 8,5 points in front of Ile de France, who missed an opportunity to catch the Red Spinnaker.

The performance of the day is from Mer Montagne-Les Saisies-INSA. The Student team, skippered bay Romain David, won the first race in front of two 'big teams', Toulon Provence Mediterranee Coycheresand Joe Fly Sailing Team: "we had a very good start and we found a stronger current offshore. Then we managed to control the fleet until the finish line, without any mistake. We are very happy with this victory. It's so unusual to see some students winning in front of the professionals".

Toulon Provence Mediterranee Coycheres might be used to victory (they won the Tour de France à la Voile 2005), but they were still delighted after such a nice day: "We toughed it out a bit at the beginning of this TFV, so today is a big present for us," said helmsman Tugdual Becquemie. "We are feeling better about the boat and crew's ability. It was an ideal day to win before the first legs in the Med, and we have seen with Defi Partage Marseille, that it's easy to lose many points in one day. In the Mediterranean, the offshore races are shorter, but there will be many inshore races and many opportunities to win some points".

The competitors of the Tour de France à la Voile will now have three days without racing when they can assess the situation after 20 days in the English Channel and the Atlantic. Tomorrow, the Mumm 30s will be lifted out the water to be trucked to Saint-Cyprien, on the east side of the Pyrenees, where they will start racing again on Friday 21 July

Results:

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Points
1	DEFI PARTAGE MARSEILLE	T Bouchard / M Paul / D Deruelle	724
2	ILE DE France	Jean Pierre Nicol	716
3	JOE FLY SAILING TEAM	Giovanni Maspero	700
4	MATONDO CONGO ROUTE DE L'EQUATEUR	Pierre-Loic Berthet/Philippe Monnet	680
5	VILLE DE GENEVE CARREFOUR PREVENTION	Loic Furher / denis Girardet	670
6	COTES D'ARMOR	Michael Aveline	652
7	TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE-COYCHYERES	Fabien Henry/Tugdual Becquemie	632
8	ILE MAURICE-NAIADE RESORTS EBSCO	Sylvain Chtounder	610
9	DEFI BASSE NORMANDIE	Benoit Charon / Nicolas Jossier	606
10	NOUVELLE CALEDONIE	Damien Iehl/Vincent Portugal	596
11	COURRIER DUNKERQUE	Daniel Souben/Christophe Patou	578
12	MER MONTAGNE LES SAISIES INSA	R David / F Gaggero/ C Fleury	560
13	CAP SPORT-HEC-ECOLE NAVALE	Hervé Gautier/Bruno Barbarin	544
14	DIEPPE SEINE MARITIME	Romain Gibon	539
15	VILLE DU PORT-BRED-LA REUNION	Gabriel Jean-albert / Marc Guessard	513
16	ESPOIRS AQUITAINS	JP Allilaire / N Radot / JJ Frebault	507
17	VanUden TU Delft	Gert Van Der Heijden	496
18	PERPIGNAN MEDITERRANEE	Paul McKenzie	480
19	NANTES-SAINT NAZAIRE	A. Civel / G. Gendron / S.Petithuguenin	437
20	ALFA LAVAL	Yoann Richomme	429
21	VAL THORENS	Lucas Millieret / Benoit Lequin	424
22	PARTOUCHE-CENTRALE NANTES-RTE	Erwan Aubertin/Masson Julien	417
23	DEFI SCLEROSE EN PLAQUES	Stéphane Venel	390
24	ESPOIR ILE DE France	Benoit Hochard / Mathieu Roynette	376
25	PORT AUTONOME LA ROCHELLE	Jean Marc Allaire	366
26	BREST GRANDES ECOLES-ENSIETA-ESC	Marie Riou/Eric Peron/alex Pallu de La Barriere	354
27	CENTRALE PARIS-EPF	Tanguy Leglatin	347
28	BIENNE VOILE	R Hartmann/L Muller/T Studer	346
29	ELLES EN MER	Kiny Parade	336
30	EIGSI CHARENTE MARITIME-ENSAM	Bertrand Svilarich/Maximilien Coyon	318
31	T SERVICE INTERIM-REGION BRUXELLES CAPITALE	Laurent Declercq / JM Fobert-Noel	298