And then there were six

Cotes d'Armor joins the potential winners of the Tour Voile after final offshore leg to Hyeres

Following yesterday's racing five boats were in the running to win the Tour de France à la Voile 2006. Today, they are six. After winning the last offshore leg between Sainte-Maxime and Hyères, Cotes d'Armor is now 6 points from the 5th boat overall, Joe Fly Sailing Team and 35 points from the leader Defi Partage -Marseille. Tomorrow the race committee could start the last leg of the race after the two inshore legs originally planned. The overall winner could then be known in the next 24 hours.

The last offshore leg of this year's event featured the same weather conditions as the previous ones: moderate wind from 6 to 12 knots, flat sea, brilliant sunshine. The fleet covered the 33 miles from Sainte-Maxime to Hyères upwind in a breeze turning from south-east to south-west, that didn't leave much room for weather strategy: "this was a speed race", commented Michaël Aveline, skipper of Cotes d'Armor. "It was not easy to stay in the lead because the Swiss kept attacking us. But we had the control over the rest of the fleet, like in a match race. We are very happy with our performance on this TFV. We worked hard before the season and we will fight until the end to try and reach the podium. That would be a nice reward for the whole team".

Thanks to their second place today, the Swiss team of Ville de Geneve-Carrefour Prevention have climbed back to the third step of the podium. "It will be hard to win", said the skipper Loïc Fuhrer, "but there is still three legs to race and everything can happen. We will try to do our best, as usual".

The student team of Alfa Laval also had a nice day, finishing third in Hyères. "We got a nice start", said skipper Toann Richomme. "The wind was turning right and we chose the left side of the course. We are very happy with this result because we didn't have a very good TFV this year. We will do better next year".

If the wind is strong enough to start the last three races, the overall winner of the TFV 2006 could be know tomorrow night. Six boats can still win, but the two favourites are still Defi Partage -Marseille and Ile de France, who have been first and second overall for the last two weeks. Tonight they are only 8 points adrift. "We are here to win," said skipper of Ile de France, Jean-Pierre Nicol. "We will have to be better than the others". T

23rd at the first mark today, Defi Partage Marseille managed to cross the finish line in 11th position. "We went right after the start and this was not the right option", said skipper of Marseille Dimitri Deruelle. "It was pretty hard to catch up. Now everything will have to be done tomorrow. We are going to racer a whole TFV in just three legs."

Results:

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Tot
1	DEFI PARTAGE MARSEILLE	T Bouchard / M Paul / D Deruelle	1063.75
2	ILE DE France	Jean Pierre Nicol	1055
3	VILLE DE GENEVE CARREFOUR PREVENTION	Loic Furher / denis Girardet	1042.25
4	MATONDO CONGO ROUTE DE L'EQUATEUR	Pierre-Loic Berthet/Philippe Monnet	1040.5
5	JOE FLY SAILING TEAM	Giovanni Maspero	1034.25
6	COTES D'ARMOR	Michael Aveline	1028.5
7	TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE-COYCHYERES	Fabien Henry/Tugdual Becquemie	975.75
8	COURRIER DUNKERQUE	Daniel Souben/Christophe Patou	905
9	DEFI BASSE NORMANDIE	Benoit Charon / Nicolas Jossier	883
10	NOUVELLE CALEDONIE	Damien Iehl/Vincent Portugal	880.75
11	CAP SPORT-HEC-ECOLE NAVALE	Hervé Gautier/Bruno Barbarin	858
12	ILE MAURICE-NAIADE RESORTS EBSCO	Sylvain Chtounder	857.5
13	MER MONTAGNE LES SAISIES INSA	R David / F Gaggero/ C Fleury	837.5
14	VanUden TU Delft	Gert Van Der Heijden	823.25
15	VILLE DU PORT-BRED-LA REUNION	Gabriel Jean-albert / Marc Guessard	766.75
16	ESPOIRS AQUITAINS	JP Allilaire / N Radot / JJ Frebault	761
17	DIEPPE SEINE MARITIME	Romain Gibon	755.5
18	PERPIGNAN MEDITERRANEE	Paul McKenzie	704.75
19	NANTES-SAINT NAZAIRE	A. Civel / G. Gendron / S.Petithuguenin	694
20	ESPOIR ILE DE France	Benoit Hochard / Mathieu Roynette	664.5
21	ALFA LAVAL	Yoann Richomme	635.25
22	PARTOUCHE-CENTRALE NANTES-RTE	Erwan Aubertin/Masson Julien	606.75
23	VAL THORENS	Lucas Millieret / Benoit Lequin	584.25
24	BIENNE VOILE	R Hartmann/L Muller/T Studer	569.5
25	PORT AUTONOME LA ROCHELLE	Jean Marc Allaire	549.25
26	CENTRALE PARIS-EPF	Tanguy Leglatin	527.25
27	DEFI SCLEROSE EN PLAQUES	Stéphane Venel	520.5
28	BREST GRANDES ECOLES-ENSIETA-ESC	Marie Riou/Eric Peron/alex Pallu de La Barriere	511.25
29	ELLES EN MER	Kiny Parade	496.25
30	EIGSI CHARENTE MARITIME-ENSAM	Bertrand Svilarich/Maximilien Coyon	492.75
31	T SERVICE INTERIM-REGION BRUXELLES CAPITALE	Laurent Declercq / JM Fobert-Noel	472.5