Into Spain

Tour de France a la Voile hangs a right

The Mumm 30s of the Tour de France a la Voile sailed 36 nautical miles today from Saint-Cyprien to Roses, Costa Brava in Spain. Elcimaï – Ville de Marseille (Dimitri Deruelle) finished first after a difficult start in front of Côtes d’Armor (Michaël Aveline) and Manche – Basse Normandie (Benoît Charon, Nicolas Jossier), and regains the second tier of the podium.

The 30 competitors started the offshore leg towards Roses at 10am. The group in the middle of the line started very quickly, but three competitors were over early. Elcimaï – Ville de Marseille started a little late near the pin, as did Tahiti et ses Iles (Teva Plichart). It was an poor start for the Marseilles team who made an unfortunate mistake during the first upwind of the race. "We started too late and made a bad choice on the far left of the coursem, so we rounded only 19th at the first buoy. Then we got a shift to the right which helped us a lot and we got it at the exact right moment, so afterwards we just had to head directly for the finish line", explained helmsman, Morgan Lagravière.

However, it did not go so well for all of them. Hervé Gautier, skipper of Caisse d’Epargne – HEC – Ecole Navale outlined the difficulties of today’s race: "The wind fluctuates a lot in the Mediterranean - you can’t predict in advance what will happen and no one can make a plan for the race". And so the wind turned 180° during today’s race and proved decisive for the overall position.

The skipper of the student team who was in the lead at the first bouy and in 17th position at the arrival, described what happened: “We went inshore at the beginning of the race hoping that the wind would calm down offshore but it never happened and in the end it would have been a better idea to stay further offshore". It proved to be a tight race - after 10 hours racing the five leaders crossed the finish line separated by only one minute and ten seconds, even though they had chosen different routes in the race. The crew of Côtes d’Armor (Michaël Aveline) finished only 37 seconds after the Marseilleans. The two crews match raced for the whole race. For some boats it was a real fight all the way to the end - Manche – Basse Normandie, Nantes – Saint Nazaire (Erwan Auburtin) and Toulon Provence Méditerranée – COYCHyères (Fabien Henry) crossed the finish together separated by only three seconds.

The highlight of today is still Elcimaï – Ville de Marseille climbing up the overall results. The second discard for all the boats was introduced today for the present set of results. Elcimaï – Ville de Marseille was therefore relieved to be able to scrub their DSQ after their premature start. Even though they aren’t allowed to make any mistakes in the future they still managed to take the lead from Ile de France (Victor Lanier, Nicolas Pauchet) and Tahiti et ses Iles and they are now only 5.5 points after the current leader Toulon Provence Méditerranée – COYCHyères.

The boats will leave the pontoon at 11:30am tomorrow to navigate in the bay of Roses and there is now only five days left until the race finishes in Marseille, the crews can still make a difference!

Results:

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Points
1	TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE COYCHYERES	Fabien HENRY	793.75
2	ELCIMAI VILLE DE MARSEILLE	Dimitri DERUELLE	788.25
3	ILE DE France	Victor LANIER - Nicolas PAUCHET	773
4	TAHITI ET SES ILES	Teva PLICHART	770.75
5	COTES D'ARMOR	Michaël AVELINE	714.5
6	COURRIER DUNKERQUE	Daniel SOUBEN	673.25
7	NOUVELLE CALEDONIE	Vincent Portugal	668.75
8	VAL-THORENS	Lucas MILLIERET	652.25
9	MANCHE-BASSE NORMANDIE	Benoît CHARON - Nicolas JOSSIER	637.75
10	CAISSE D'EPARGNE HEC ECOLE NAVALE	Hervé GAUTIER	634
11	BRED	Sylvain CHTOUNDER	610
12	PERPIGNAN MEDITERRANEE	Paul McKENZIE	601.75
13	SAINT-MALO PURFLO TEAM SNBSM	François LEBOURDAIS - Pierre HINGANT	599.75
14	LES SAISIES INSA	Sylvain LEBOEUF	583.25
15	NANTES SAINT-NAZAIRE	Erwan AUBURTIN - Julien MASSON	568.5
16	VILLE DU PORT REGION REUNION	Gabriel JEAN-ALBERT - Marc GUESSARD	563.25
17	ING ESPOIR ESCP EAP	Dimitri CAUDRELIER/Vincent AILLAUD	532.75
18	VILLE DE GENEVE CARREFOUR PREVENTION	Loïc FUHRER	524.25
19	BREST GRANDES ECOLES ENSIETA ESC	Loïc LE GARREC	491.25
20	DEFI SCLEROSE EN PLAQUES TOSHIBA	Stéphane VENEL	480.25
21	EIGSI CHARENTE MARITIME	Frédéric GAUTHIER	466.75
22	ESPOIRS AQUITAINS	J-Philippe ALLILAIRE - Nicolas RADOT	456.25
23	BIENNE VOILE	Walter KOCH	428.25
24	VANUDEN TUDELFT VANOORD	Suzanne LEIDERS - Michiel VAN DER5 MEULEN	411.5
25	TEAM CENTRALE NANTES EPA SOPRA	François LOURDAIS	408
26	T.SERVICE INTERIM REGION DE BRUXELLES CAPITALE	Laurent DECLERCQ - Cyril MICHEL	374.25
27	DIEPPE SEINE MARITIME	Manuelle ADAN	360.25
28	ETAMINE CENTRALE PARIS	Pierre PENNEC	358.25
29	NAVTECH.CA	Thomas BARBEAU	346.75
30	ECHO MER SUP DE CO LA ROCHELLE	Jean-Marc ALLAIRE	302