Unexpected winner

As Dutch team scores their first win in the Tour de France a la Voile

We were expecting to see the big favourites to get ahead at the finish line in Marseille, but once again on this 29th Tour de France à la Voile, the outsiders won on the very last miles. Despite the domination of Defi Partage Marseille, the Dutch students on van Uden TU Delft managed to finish first in this 120 miles offshore leg in the Mediterranean.
Cotes d'Armor finished second and another student team, Alfa Laval, from the Southampton Institute, climbed on the third step of the podium. Very disappointed by their result on this race, the Marseille crew of Dimitri Deruelle hung on to their leadership in the overall results by finishing ninth in front of their direct competitors, Ile de France and Joe Fly Sailing Team.

The fleet of the Tour de France à la Voile left Saint-Cyprien yesterday just after 10.30 to race a leg that everyone thought crucial for the results. Apart from Cotes d'Armor, which crossed the finish line in second place, none of the 'big teams' ended up in the top positions. Instead, the students made the surprise by overtaking the leaders in front of the Frioul islands. "This is the third year we are competing in the Tour de France à la Voile and this first time we have won a race," said Gert van der Heijden, skipper of van Uden TU Delft. "This is amazing. After the poll off Cap d'Agde, we chose to go offshore and I think we had a bit more wind than everyone else. At 3.00 this morning, we realised we were in the leading pack and at 5.00, we saw the Red Spinnaker!" In the Student ranking, van Uden TU Delft remains third, behind Mer Montagne-Les Sailies-INSA and Cap Sport-HEC-Ecole Navale both of whom also had a very nice day by finishing 10th and 6th respectively.

In the overall results, Defi Partage Marseille keeps first place and also gains a few more points over Ile de France and Joe Fly Sailing Team, 13th and 15th this morning. Behind, the gaps are closing up. Ville de Geneve-Carrefour Prevention is now fourth in front of Matondo Congo-Route de l'équateur, only two points ahead of Cotes d'Armor. "We would have preferred to finish first because we are always second," said the skipper of Cotes d'Armor, Michael Aveline. "But we are very happy with this result. This proves we are in the game for the days to come".

If this leg doesn't make the results clearer, it could have a psychological impact on the competitors. Six days before the finish, the crews are getting tired and the pressure is rising. Missing the finish after leading the fleet for three quarter of the course could be difficult for crew morale. "We are very disappointed", said Maxime Paul onboard Defi Partage Marseille. "We did a very nice race and we lost everything at the finish in the lee of the islands of Frioul, where we stopped in no wind. It's frustrating. We are happy to arrive at home in Marseille, but we hope we have some better results tomorrow".

Overall results:

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Tot
1	DEFI PARTAGE MARSEILLE	T Bouchard / M Paul / D Deruelle	877
2	ILE DE France	Jean Pierre Nicol	860
3	JOE FLY SAILING TEAM	Giovanni Maspero	842
4	VILLE DE GENEVE CARREFOUR PREVENTION	Loic Furher / denis Girardet	836
5	MATONDO CONGO ROUTE DE L'EQUATEUR	Pierre-Loic Berthet/Philippe Monnet	828
6	COTES D'ARMOR	Michael Aveline	826
7	TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE-COYCHYERES	Fabien Henry/Tugdual Becquemie	761
8	NOUVELLE CALEDONIE	Damien Iehl/Vincent Portugal	728
9	COURRIER DUNKERQUE	Daniel Souben/Christophe Patou	714
10	DEFI BASSE NORMANDIE	Benoit Charon / Nicolas Jossier	704
11	ILE MAURICE-NAIADE RESORTS EBSCO	Sylvain Chtounder	704
12	MER MONTAGNE LES SAISIES INSA	R David / F Gaggero/ C Fleury	676
13	CAP SPORT-HEC-ECOLE NAVALE	Hervé Gautier/Bruno Barbarin	670
14	DIEPPE SEINE MARITIME	Romain Gibon	641
15	VanUden TU Delft	Gert Van Der Heijden	633
16	ESPOIRS AQUITAINS	JP Allilaire / N Radot / JJ Frebault	620
17	PERPIGNAN MEDITERRANEE	Paul McKenzie	604
18	VILLE DU PORT-BRED-LA REUNION	Gabriel Jean-albert / Marc Guessard	601
19	ALFA LAVAL	Yoann Richomme	531
20	NANTES-SAINT NAZAIRE	A. Civel / G. Gendron / S.Petithuguenin	528
21	VAL THORENS	Lucas Millieret / Benoit Lequin	493
22	ESPOIR ILE DE France	Benoit Hochard / Mathieu Roynette	490
23	PARTOUCHE-CENTRALE NANTES-RTE	Erwan Aubertin/Masson Julien	483
24	CENTRALE PARIS-EPF	Tanguy Leglatin	454
25	PORT AUTONOME LA ROCHELLE	Jean Marc Allaire	444
26	BIENNE VOILE	R Hartmann/L Muller/T Studer	444
27	DEFI SCLEROSE EN PLAQUES	Stéphane Venel	437
28	BREST GRANDES ECOLES-ENSIETA-ESC	Marie Riou/Eric Peron/alex Pallu de La Barriere	432
29	ELLES EN MER	Kiny Parade	410
30	EIGSI CHARENTE MARITIME-ENSAM	Bertrand Svilarich/Maximilien Coyon	402
31	T SERVICE INTERIM-REGION BRUXELLES CAPITALE	Laurent Declercq / JM Fobert-Noel	376