Victory for Troussel

But a moral win for Veniard, winner of three out of four legs at the conclusion of this year's Solitaire Afflelou le Figaro

Despite his 16th place into Concarneau earlier today Nicolas Troussel aboard Financo has won the 37th La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro ahead of Thierry Chabagny on Littoral and Gerald Veniard on Scutum.

Troussel just needed to keep Thierry Chabagny behind and remain close to the leaders to be assured of his lead in the overall results.

The French skipper raised his arms in a sign of victory upon crossing the finish line to the sound of fellow competitors congratulating him over the VHF. “I am proud for everyone who is here. I am so happy, I can’t quite take it in. It is flabbergasting, it is huge, just huge…It is for times like this that we do this…it’s magical, extraordinary" enthused Troussel at the finish.



The move that ultimately would prove racing winning for both Troussel and for Chabagny's second place was when they chose to head west sailing north up the Bay of Boscay en route for Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie on leg two. For Troussel's this opened out a five hour margin over 42 of his 44 competitors.

Were it not for this the winner of this year's Figaro would have been third placed Gerald Veniard, who won the first leg but then lost it after he was penalised for carrying too much weight. However to prove this wasn't a fluke Veniard subsequently won into Dingle on leg three and again today into the Brittany Figaro stronghold of Concarneau.

Scutum crossed the Concarneay finish line at 10h09m39s today after 69 hours, 9 minutes and 39 seconds to cover the 458 miles from Dingle. at an average speed of 6.82 knots.

“What has happened to me is quite incredible…” exclaimed Veniard as he savoured his third out of four on the water victories upon arrival in Concarneau. At 36, this is his third participation in the Solitaire and he never dreamed it would go so well. From La Rochelle Veniard has enjoyed success in other classes (he is a past European and World Melges 24 Champion) but his rise in the Figaro circuit has been dramatic. Screaming and jumping in ecstasy, Veniard could not quite believe his good fortune. Known for his conviviality and good humour, Veniard announced upon arrival: “this is a great moment, I have given everything I have and I can’t quite believe it - I just do not know what happened…I was always inspired and was going fast, made the right choices at the right moments. I have never managed to have so many things go right at the same time before…now I need to see what the time difference will be for the third place in the overall results.

“This is a great moment for me," Veniard continued. "I gave everything I had in this leg. I did not sleep a moment for the first 24 hours, then it has been a real fight right the way to the finish. I can’t quite believe it. I can’t quite take it in. verything is going well for me, I go fast, upwind and downwind and I seem to find the right options. With all this success I could have won La Solitaire. I am the first to be surprised by all these good things happening to me on this race and am truly happy.

“Winning three legs or nearly, I have achieved something quite big. Others have managed to earn their place in the history pages by winning just one leg. This is just that. Armel le Cléac’h and I raced each other around Seven Stones (lightship off the Scilly Isles) and then it all boiled down to one good choice between the Ushant Racon mark and the west side of the Raz du Sein. I went further offshore with Oliver Krauss and Marc Emig and that is what made the difference. While the others had to anchor in the calm to avoid drifting backwards we managed to carry on.”

On his expectional speed Veniard added: “It is not something you are born with. I have worked hard at it, like everyone, for the past four years. I am fortunate enough to have been helped by people like Charles Caudrelier and Yann Eliès…if they are annoyed at me for the next few days, I won’t blame them!”

Veniard;s leg four win pushed former winner Armel Le Cléac’h on Brit Air off the podium. Le Cleac'h finished 13th on this leg after choosing to go inshore together with Yann Eliès on Groupe Generali Assurances. This proved to be a costly mistake, expensive in terms of ground but above all in time. “I am really disappointed. On this Solitaire you had to be up there on the second leg. On this leg we have paid for doing one two many gybes” declared le Cleac'h upon his arrival.

Oliver Krauss and Marc Emig completed the top three spots on the podium at the finish of the final leg. Together with Scutum, these three boats opted for a mores westerly course leaving behind the other 41 boats close to shore in frustratingly calm conditions.
“The race came down to Ushant," said Krauss. “Gerald goes really, really fast, too fast. He makes no mistakes…there is nothing you can do. This has been a tiring leg. It has been tough for the first 24 hours when you could not leave the helm, not even to make yourself a sandwich because otherwise you just end up broaching. It all came down to Ushant, together with Marc (Emig), the further west I went the more wind I got. That is where the difference was in the calm patch. It’s my best Figaro race yet, I had time to enjoy it on the last miles to the finish…”

Armel Le Cleac’h ( Brit’Air) wins the highly coveted Hublot Prize for the most distance covered in 24 hours: 247 miles at an average 10.32 knots!

More photos of Nicolas Troussel on the following page...

Leg four results:

Pos	Skipper	Boat	Finished at
1	VENIARD Gérald	Scutum	10H09
2	KRAUSS Oliver	AXA Plaisance	10H19
3	EMIG Marc	A.ST Groupe	10H23
4	LEBAS Christophe	Armor Lux	11H40
5	CAUDRELIER Charles	Bostik	11H59
6	TABARLY Erwan	Iceberg Finance	12H07
7	de PAVANT Kito	Groupe Bel	12H13
8	DROUGLAZET Eric	PIXmania.com	12H14
9	DUTHIL Frédéric	Brossard	12H21
10	NAGY Robert	Theolia	12H24
11	d'ALI Pietro	Nanni Diesel	12H30
12	BERENGER Nicolas	KONE Ascenseurs	12H30
13	LE CLEAC'H Armel	Brit Air	12H32
14	ELIES Yann	Groupe Generali assurances	12H32
15	TOULORGE Alexandre	Starkey	12H35
16	TROUSSEL Nicolas	Financo	12H36
17	MOUREN Jean-Paul	M@rseillEntreprises	12H37
18	ROUXEL Thomas	Défi Santé Nutrition	12H38
19	GREGOIRE Jeanne	Banque Populaire	12H42
20	ISRAEL Erwan	Delta Dore	12H45
21	WARDLEY Liz	Sojasun	12H49
22	PELLECUER Laurent	Cliptol Sport	12H49
23	MORVAN Gildas	Cercle Vert	12H50
24	SVILARICH Etienne	Sogeti	12H53
25	MAHE Gildas	Le Comptoir Immobilier	12H57
26	DOUGUET Corentin	E.Leclerc - Bouygues Télécom	12H58
27	TRIPON Armel	Gedimat	13H00
28	CHABAGNY Thierry	Littoral	13H01
29	DAVIES Samantha	Roxy	13H03
30	PRATT Christopher	Espoir Crédit Agricole	13H07
31	LOISON Alexis	Région Basse-Normandie	13H11
32	DICK Jean-Pierre	Virbac-Paprec	13H13
33	LE GAL Franck	Lenze	13H13
34	TREUSSART Ronan	Groupe Céléos	13H17
35	VACHETTE Vincent	SCO Saveur et Vie	13H24
36	DEFERT Eric	Suzuki Autombiles	13H30
37	SEGUIN Damien	AltéAd Region Pays de la Loire	13H35
38	PERON Eric	Cigo	13H44
39	GOUEZIGOUX Laurent	Côtes d'Armor	13H49
40	PELLET Jean-François	Lubexcel	14H06
41	AUBERT Jérome	La Normandise	14H26
42	DA CRUZ Antonio Pedro	Baïko	14H37
43	LE MIERE Grégoire	Man Of All Seasons	15H29
44	LE BAUT Jimmy	Port-Olona	16H43

Overall

Pos	Skipper	Boat	Time
1	TROUSSEL Nicolas	Financo	in 297h 01min 56s
2	CHABAGNY Thierry	Littoral	+ 01h56'55''
3	VENIARD Gérald	Scutum	+ 03h55'28''
4	LE CLEAC'H Armel	Brit Air	+ 05h20'20''
5	ELIES Yann	Groupe Generali assurances	+ 06h33'07''
6	CAUDRELIER Charles	Bostik	+ 06h57'50''
7	TABARLY Erwan	Iceberg Finance	+ 06h58'36''
8	KRAUSS Oliver	AXA Plaisance	+ 07h21'53''
9	DROUGLAZET Eric	PIXmania.com	+ 07h49'08''
10	de PAVANT Kito	Groupe Bel	+ 07h58'03''
11	DUTHIL Frédéric	Brossard	+ 08h18'03''
12	MORVAN Gildas	Cercle Vert	+ 08h54'30''
13	EMIG Marc	A.ST Groupe	+ 08h59'24''
14	GREGOIRE Jeanne	Banque Populaire	+ 09h21'43''
15	MOUREN Jean-Paul	M@rseillEntreprises	+ 09h58'14''
16	PELLECUER Laurent	Cliptol Sport	+ 10h07'05''
17	PRATT Christopher	Espoir Crédit Agricole	+ 10h32'21''
18	MAHE Gildas	Le Comptoir Immobilier	+ 11h02'16''
19	BERENGER Nicolas	KONE Ascenseurs	+ 11h10'04''
20	D'ALI Pietro	Nanni Diesel	+ 11h13'25''
21	ISRAEL Erwan	Delta Dore	+ 11h33'41''
22	TRIPON Armel	Gedimat	+ 11h52'22''
23	TOULORGE Alexandre	Starkey	+ 12h02'34''
24	WARDLEY Liz	Sojasun	+ 12h04'25''
25	DAVIES Samantha	Roxy	+ 13h34'04''
26	LEBAS Christophe	Armor Lux	+ 13h49'07''
27	NAGY Robert	THEOLIA	+ 14h03'59''
28	LE GAL Franck	Lenze	+ 14h21'29''
29	PERON Eric	Cigo	+ 14h44'01''
30	DICK Jean-Pierre	Virbac-Paprec	+ 14h52'43''
31	DOUGUET Corentin	E.Leclerc - Bouygues Telecom	+ 15h07'52''
32	SVILARICH Etienne	Sogeti	+ 15h19'50''
33	TREUSSART Ronan	Groupe Céléos	+ 15h58'25''
34	ROUXEL Thomas	Défi Santé Nutrition	+ 17h19'36''
35	LOISON Alexis	Région Basse-Normandie	+ 18h45'14''
36	SEGUIN Damien	AltéAd Région Pays de la Loire	+ 18h59'09''
37	GOUEZIGOUX Laurent	Côtes d'Armor	+ 20h16'17''
38	AUBERT Jérome	La Normandise	+ 20h49'42''
39	VACHETTE Vincent	SCO - Saveur et Vie	+ 21h30'28''
40	LE MIERE Grégoire	Man Of All Seasons	+ 21h33'59''
41	DEFERT Eric	Suzuki Automobiles	+ 22h29'09''
42	PELLET Jean-François	Lubexcel	+ 23h45'36''
43	DA CRUZ Antonio Pedro	Baïko	+ 30h23'17''
44	LE BAUT Jimmy	Port-Olona	+ 39h02'46''