Leaders in protest

At end of shortened Marseille to St Maxime leg of the Tour Voile

Toulon Provence Mediterranee Coycheres got their victory tonight at 7.56 at the end of the offshore leg between Marseille and Sainte-Maxime, ahead of Defi Partage-Marseille and Matondo Congo-Route de l'équateur. This is the second victory of Fabien Henry's crew since the leg from Saint Quay-Portrieux-Camaret. This latest leg was ultimately shortened to 45 nautical miles between Toulon and the Gulf of Saint-Tropez. In the overall results, Defi Partage-Marseille extends its lead of 5 more points ahead of Ile de France. However, those are the results are provisional and could change after a protest levelled by Ile de France and Matondo Congo-Route de l'équateur against Defi Partage-Marseille...

"We were fourth at the first mark and we constantly gained," explains Tugdual Becquemie, helmsman onboard Toulon Provence Mediterranee Coycheres. "We had to be patient since the beginning of the race didn’t leave much room for options. But in front of Hyères, the wind shifted and we had the opportunity to come back - that was a bit stressful because there was no shortening of the course and we knew that the end might be tricky. We feel relieved". The team from Hyères, winners of the Tour de France à la Voile in 2005, already know that they won’t win the 2006 race, but they still want to do their best to try and gain a few points overall and for the pleasure of winning a leg along 'their' coast. After this offshore leg, Fabien Henry and his crew are still in seventh position, but climb to only 20 points behind Cotes d'Armor.

The nice trick of the day was made by Matondo Congo-Route de l'équateur. Fifth yesterday, the 'Congolese' team of Pierre Loïc Berthet once again finished on the third step of today's podium and taking advantage of the 'not-so-good' results of their direct rivals, Ville de Geneve-Carrefour Prevention and Joe Fly Sailing Team, respectively 11th and 17th today. Ile de France keeps its second place crossing the finish line 4th. "It was a nice race under spinnaker," recounted Jean Pierre Nicol, the skipper. "We were leading shortly after the beginning of the race, but we got trapped into gybing battles, being over-confident. We have to watch out more for our rivals and take minimum risks. Still, we are quite happy with our result compared to the crews we are competing against, the Italians and the Swiss guys'."

Like Matondo Congo-Route de l'équateur, Ile de France were displaying a red flag in their backstay when crossing the finish line, protesting Defi Partage-Marseille. Both crews accuse the leaders of having dived to take seaweed that was caught beneath the hull - not allowed by ISAF rules. Only four days before the end, the penalty that will eventually be given by the Jury could change the final result at the top of the scoreboard...

Provisional results:

Pos	Boat	Skiper	Tot
1	DEFI PARTAGE MARSEILLE	T Bouchard / M Paul / D Deruelle	1055.5
2	ILE DE France	Jean Pierre Nicol	1012.5
3	MATONDO CONGO ROUTE DE L'EQUATEUR	Pierre-Loic Berthet/Philippe Monnet	1003
4	JOE FLY SAILING TEAM	Giovanni Maspero	998
5	VILLE DE GENEVE CARREFOUR PREVENTION	Loic Furher / denis Girardet	996
6	COTES D'ARMOR	Michael Aveline	978.5
7	TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE-COYCHYERES	Fabien Henry/Tugdual Becquemie	937
8	COURRIER DUNKERQUE	Daniel Souben/Christophe Patou	872.5
9	NOUVELLE CALEDONIE	Damien Iehl/Vincent Portugal	863.5
10	DEFI BASSE NORMANDIE	Benoit Charon / Nicolas Jossier	843
11	CAP SPORT-HEC-ECOLE NAVALE	Hervé Gautier/Bruno Barbarin	833
12	ILE MAURICE-NAIADE RESORTS EBSCO	Sylvain Chtounder	827.5
13	MER MONTAGNE LES SAISIES INSA	R David / F Gaggero/ C Fleury	815
14	VanUden TU Delft	Gert Van Der Heijden	782
15	VILLE DU PORT-BRED-LA REUNION	Gabriel Jean-albert / Marc Guessard	741
16	DIEPPE SEINE MARITIME	Romain Gibon	738
17	ESPOIRS AQUITAINS	JP Allilaire / N Radot / JJ Frebault	733.5
18	PERPIGNAN MEDITERRANEE	Paul McKenzie	686
19	NANTES-SAINT NAZAIRE	A. Civel / G. Gendron / S.Petithuguenin	674
20	ESPOIR ILE DE France	Benoit Hochard / Mathieu Roynette	629.5
21	ALFA LAVAL	Yoann Richomme	591.5
22	PARTOUCHE-CENTRALE NANTES-RTE	Erwan Aubertin/Masson Julien	580.5
23	VAL THORENS	Lucas Millieret / Benoit Lequin	568
24	BIENNE VOILE	R Hartmann/L Muller/T Studer	557
25	PORT AUTONOME LA ROCHELLE	Jean Marc Allaire	528
26	CENTRALE PARIS-EPF	Tanguy Leglatin	522
27	DEFI SCLEROSE EN PLAQUES	Stéphane Venel	505.5
28	BREST GRANDES ECOLES-ENSIETA-ESC	Marie Riou/Eric Peron/alex Pallu de La Barriere	504.5
29	ELLES EN MER	Kiny Parade	482.5
30	EIGSI CHARENTE MARITIME-ENSAM	Bertrand Svilarich/Maximilien Coyon	469
31	T SERVICE INTERIM-REGION BRUXELLES CAPITALE	Laurent Declercq / JM Fobert-Noel	462.5