New leader with a day to go

Swiss team pulls ahead as wind goes light in the Tour de France a la Voile

This day could have revealed the winner of the Tour de France à la Voile 2006... Instead, it made the overall results all the tighter. The shifty wind disrupted the racing day in Hyères and has resulted in a new leader to the event. Ville de Geneve-Carrefour Prevention won the race and has taken over the Red Spinnaker. They are now only 0.5 point in front of Defi Partage-Marseille and the first six boats now all within 20 points. Tomorrow the fleet will sail the two last races - only then will the name of the overall winner become known.

The 31 teams started this morning at 11.00 off Hyères in some stormy and shifty conditions that forced the Race Committee to cancel the race after the first windward mark. This proved a tough decision for Defi Partage-Marseille who was leading the fleet at the time and could have won some precious points to secure their overall victory. When the Race Committee gave another start, about an hour later, Thierry Bouchard and his team had trouble to get back into the race. The Swiss team of Ville de Geneve-Carrefour Prevention were able to win the race in front of Cotes d'Armor and Dieppe Seine-Maritime.

"We didn't have a very good start", said the Swiss skipper Loïc Fuhrer at the finish, "but we chose the right side of the course and it paid off. Tomorrow, we will try and sail as usual and give our best. The first few boats are so close from each other that it's becoming a psychological game". 0.5 in front of the team from Marseille, the Swiss are just 4.25 points in front of Ile de France. "The Swiss are really good in the inshore races," said skipper Jean-Pierre Nicol. "The overall results don't really matter. We have to look at the points. We are happy to get closer to Defi Partage-Marseille, but today we forgot a bit about the Swiss. It's not that easy to keep the control over five boats at the same time".

In these shifty conditions, the Race Committee finally decided to delay the two other races until tomorrow and to send the boats back in the marina. Tonight, the overall results are totally different from yesterday when the six first boats stood 35 points apart. This is now down to 20 points. With their second place today, Cotes d'Armor climbed up the rank 4, in front of Matondo Congo-Route de l'équateur and Joe Fly Sailing Team. While the results are still open among the professionnal teams, the winner of the Amateur class is already known. Leading by 96 points and with 80 points left to win in the two last races tomorrow, Ile Maurice-Naiade Resorts-EBSCO is the victor in this class. "We are very happy, because our project was quite late and we had some serious competitors like Ville du Port-BRED-La Reunion and Dieppe Seine-Maritime" said the skipper Sylvain Chtounder. "We will wait until tomorrow to celebrate this victory and the end of the TFV with the other teams. We want to try and win some more points in the overall results".

Results:

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Tot
1	VILLE DE GENEVE CARREFOUR PREVENTION	Loic Furher / denis Girardet	1082.25
2	DEFI PARTAGE MARSEILLE	T Bouchard / M Paul / D Deruelle	1081.75
3	ILE DE France	Jean Pierre Nicol	1078
4	COTES D'ARMOR	Michael Aveline	1065.5
5	MATONDO CONGO ROUTE DE L'EQUATEUR	Pierre-Loic Berthet/Philippe Monnet	1064.5
6	JOE FLY SAILING TEAM	Giovanni Maspero	1062.25
7	TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE-COYCHYERES	Fabien Henry/Tugdual Becquemie	1002.75
8	COURRIER DUNKERQUE	Daniel Souben/Christophe Patou	934
9	DEFI BASSE NORMANDIE	Benoit Charon / Nicolas Jossier	917
10	NOUVELLE CALEDONIE	Damien Iehl/Vincent Portugal	895.75
11	ILE MAURICE-NAIADE RESORTS EBSCO	Sylvain Chtounder	888.5
12	CAP SPORT-HEC-ECOLE NAVALE	Hervé Gautier/Bruno Barbarin	879
13	MER MONTAGNE LES SAISIES INSA	R David / F Gaggero/ C Fleury	850.5
14	VanUden TU Delft	Gert Van Der Heijden	839.25
15	VILLE DU PORT-BRED-LA REUNION	Gabriel Jean-albert / Marc Guessard	791.75
16	ESPOIRS AQUITAINS	JP Allilaire / N Radot / JJ Frebault	791
17	DIEPPE SEINE MARITIME	Romain Gibon	790.5
18	PERPIGNAN MEDITERRANEE	Paul McKenzie	716.75
19	NANTES-SAINT NAZAIRE	A. Civel / G. Gendron / S.Petithuguenin	714
20	ESPOIR ILE DE France	Benoit Hochard / Mathieu Roynette	690.5
21	ALFA LAVAL	Yoann Richomme	668.25
22	PARTOUCHE-CENTRALE NANTES-RTE	Erwan Aubertin/Masson Julien	623.75
23	VAL THORENS	Lucas Millieret / Benoit Lequin	616.25
24	BIENNE VOILE	R Hartmann/L Muller/T Studer	583.5
25	PORT AUTONOME LA ROCHELLE	Jean Marc Allaire	560.25
26	CENTRALE PARIS-EPF	Tanguy Leglatin	546.25
27	DEFI SCLEROSE EN PLAQUES	Stéphane Venel	542.5
28	BREST GRANDES ECOLES-ENSIETA-ESC	Marie Riou/Eric Peron/alex Pallu de La Barriere	521.25
29	ELLES EN MER	Kiny Parade	504.25
30	EIGSI CHARENTE MARITIME-ENSAM	Bertrand Svilarich/Maximilien Coyon	501.75
31	T SERVICE INTERIM-REGION BRUXELLES CAPITALE	Laurent Declercq / JM Fobert-Noel	480.5