Leader penalised

34 points separation between leaders in Tour de France a la Voile

Three days before the end of the race, the battle for victory is on again. After a 50% penalty awarded by the international jury of the Tour de France à la Voile 2006, leader Defi Partage-Marseille has lost 25.5 points in the overall results. They finished 12th and 8th of the two inshore races today in the Gulf of Saint Tropez and are still leading the scoreboard but now only by 17.5 points from Ile de France. The first five boats in the overall results are now just within 34 points of one another.

The atmosphere was hot in the Gulf of Saint Tropez today. The fleet started early afternoon in 33°C heat for two windward-leeward races off Sainte-Maxime. The sea breeze was quite steady between 8 and 12 knots and the 31 teams seemed very excited, so excited in fact that they had a general recall at the first start, before taking a second start under black flag. This proved fatal to Brest Grandes Ecoles Ensieta ESC, Port Autonome La Rochelle and one of the top five boats overall, Ville de Geneve-Carrefour Prevention.

Ville du Port-Bred-La Reunion won the first race and finished second in the second one. "We had been waiting for that for a while for this," said skipper Gabriel Jean Albert. "We already won an offshore leg in the Atlantic, and on the two last one, we did quite well but we didn't win. We know the area quite well so we used our experience to capitalise on the race course. We had to start near the committee boat and tack right after the line to sail the right hand side of the course".

Tonight Ville du Port-Bred-La Reunion has gone from fourth to second in the Amateur ranking, with the same amount of points as Diepe Seine-Maritime and 89.5 points from class leader Ile Maurice-Naiade Resorts-EBSCO. "The top position if a bit far away for us," said Gabriel Jean Albert, "but our objective was to be on the podium so it's still possible".

Within striking distance of the overall leaders, Joe Fly Sailing Team is back in the fight. With two third places today, the Italians have moved into fourth position, five points behind Matondo Congo-Route de l'équateur. "This was a day full of action," said Laurent Pagès. "With the penalty to Defi Partage-Marseille, the disqualification of Ville de Geneve-Carrefour Prevention and three other main competitors having an average day, we are doing pretty well. But it's not over. Things can change very quickly. A mistake, a disqualification, a bad leg..."

After the 50% penalty imposed on Defi Partage-Marseille on the last offshore race between Marseille and Sainte-Maxime, Ile de France, second in the first race today, is now 17.5 points behind the leader. Yesterday, Ile de France and Matondo Congo-Route de l'équateur protested Defi Partage-Marseille for diving under their hull to remove some sea weed away, forbidden by the ISAF rule 47.2.

Tomorrow, the fleet will leave Sainte-Maxime at 11.00 for the last offshore leg to Hyères.
Overall results:

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Tot
1	DEFI PARTAGE MARSEILLE	T Bouchard / M Paul / D Deruelle	1030
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	DIEPPE SEINE MARITIME	Romain Gibon	738
15	VILLE DU PORT-BRED-LA REUNION	Gabriel Jean-albert / Marc Guessard	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	519
27	DEFI SCLEROSE EN PLAQUES	Stéphane Venel	505.5
28	BREST GRANDES ECOLES-ENSIETA-ESC	Marie Riou/Eric Peron/alex Pallu de La Barriere	502.5
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