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News from the prologue to this years Tour Voile

Despite the light wind and a 30 minutes delayed start, the 31 boats of the Tour de France à la Voile finally raced the Prologue under the sun of Dunkerque. A gentle way to start this 30 days marathon along the French coasts. If this race doesn't count for the overall ranking, all the crews did sail their best to try and stand out. But who are the favourites of the 29th edition?

After a nice victory on last year Tour de France la Voile, TOULON PROVENCE MÉDITERRANÉE COYCHYERES remains the logical favorite for the 2006 edition. But the competition is going to be tough. The crew of Fabien Henry will have to stand up to DÉFI PARTAGÉ MARSEILLE's attacks. This team finished second on the two last TFV and are aiming more than ever for the first step of the podium. And they won't be the only one! With its new title sponsor MATONDO CONGO – Route de l'équateur, the Mumm 30 World Champions, Pierre-Loïc Berthet and his crew, are pretty honest about their ambitions : 'we want to be in the match straight away. Our strengh is the knowledge we have of the boat and the race course. And our crew is really running well. We hope to finish on the podium'. Amongst the professionnal teams, we can find some regular skippers, like Vincent Portugal ( New Caledonia) or Daniel Souben ( COURRIER DUNKERQUE).

That's for the theory. But what for the practice? The Mumm 30 went out today for the Prologue. This coefficient 0 race doesn't count for the overall ranking, but allows everyone, both on land and at sea, to assess the competition's level. Despite the light wind, the boats sailed neck and neck around the buoys and the results at the finish held a few surprises. If two pro boats finished on the podium, NOUVELLE-CALÉDONIE, first, and MATONDO CONGO – Route de l'équateur, third, the second place is taken by a student team, CAPSPORT – HEC – ECOLE NAVALE.

Tomorrow, the 31 teams will leave the dock, Quai des Hollandais, at 9.00 am to sail three inshore races. The northerly wind will be quite light in the morning, but might increase up to 10-15 knots later in the afternoon.