Desjoyeaux clinches it

Third Figaro win for solo sailing legend as Fred Duthil takes final leg into Les Sables d'Olonne

Foncia skipper Michel Desjoyeaux this morning entered the history books when he won La Solitiare Afflelou Le Figaro race for third time, out of ten occasions he has competed, a feat only achieved previously by French singlehanded sailing stars Jean le Cam and Philippe Poupon.

A third place finish into Les Sables d’Olonne, 41 minutes and 55 seconds behind winner Fréderic Duthil on Distinxion and Gérald Veniard on Scutum respectively, was enough to secure him the small cumulative elasped time for the race's four legs to clinch victory, having finished in third in on three legs and winning the second. “Mich’Desj” covered the four races between Caen, Crosshaven, Brest, La Coruña and Les Sables d’Olonne, making up a total 1,659 miles in 247 hours, 20 minutes and 47 seconds.

Thus the overall top three places, subject to final jury decision, go to Michel Desjoyeaux ( Foncia), Frédéric Duthil ( Distinxion) and Corentin Douguet ( E.Leclerc/Bouygues Telecom).

This win is another ultimate accolade for Desjoyeaux who has dominated singlehanded sailing for more than 15 years as winner of the Vendee Globe in 2000/2001, winner of The Transat, winner of the Route du Rhum, both on monohulls and on multihulls and now three time winner of La Solitaire. The next step for Desjoyeaux is the next Vendee Globe in 2008.



Impressively part time Figaro sailor Fréd Duthil won the fourth and final leg between La Coruña and Les Sables d’Olonne. The skipper of Distinxion, with raised arms and a huge grin, crossed the finish line at 02h20m10s this morning, covering the 340 mile final leg between La Coruna and Les Sables d'Olonne in 1 day 11 hours, 20 minutes and 10 seconds at a 9.62 knot average.

Duthil has had a great Figaro, winning the Prologue race, the first leg to Ireland, coming second on the next leg back to Brest (finishing 50 seconds behind Michel Desjoyeaux) and coming 8th on the third leg (2 hours and 9 minutes behind Corentin Douguet). This is the fourth time the former windsurf champion competes in La Solitaire and it is his best performance to date.

Just before the start on Sunday morning in la Coruña, Duthil declared: “This is my kind of race! It is going to be wet but fun…it will be short, a sprint…well more like a marathon after 30 hours! I am happy about the conditions we are going to get; it is the kind that I go pretty fast on. So that is a good sign. I am not looking at the overall rankings anymore. My objective is to win the leg and forget about anything that has happened up until now.” This could not have been more of a premonition.

Duthil was esctatic as he crossed the finish line: “You see my friends, I said that this would be a race for surfers! I really dug deep to win this one. We fought like dogs and dogs and had some huge average speeds. There was 35 to 40 knots constantly with gusts of up to 47 knots. It is mad, I did not think I was in the lead, I thought that it was Mich.”

"It is so nice to finish as this has been really, really tough. You can’t imagine when you are not on the boat just how tough it was. You just got huge waves in your face. The last two hours I could barely carry on, we kept calling each other over the VHF to say, come on it’s not far to go. We were all below deck with the autopilot on and no one wanted to drive the boat, we had had our fill!”

Where you surprised? "Up to an hour before I finished I did not know that I was in the lead! I was sure that Michel Desjoyeaux was ahead and I thought that maybe I was third or fourth…It is incredible that I am here when you think that I managed to get the spinnaker under the boat in a squall and had lots of trouble trying to pull it out the water. I could not believe it when I announced I was coming to the finish line. I really thought others had already announced themselves. I am really happy, it’s great! I passed Gérald (Veniard) over the last 3 or 4 miles. I did not have time to get used to this feeling, I am so happy! Winning two legs on La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro is a dream come true…"

You had some really tough conditions at sea… "When the depression came in this morning it really blew. I had up to 47 knots and then it get’s worrying! We had to fight it out like dogs. I had said that this would be a fast leg, on paper this leg was like windsurfers leg, but it was unexpectedly tough. And if I end up in one of the top three spots, well that would be just great!"

What do you think of Michel Desjoyeaux’s overall win on the race? "When I started sailing he had already won his first Solitaire. What makes a great champion is having the ability to continually question oneself. He knows how to do that and I hope that I will have the same motivation he has after having done so much. Michel really merits his victory. He sailed perfectly."

Are you not keen to become a professional sailor? "Not for now. All year I work in an insurance company. I have found a balance like that and it suits me well even though sailing has been my passion ever since I was a child. When I think about it, I started sailing solo four years agoand remember how on the last leg I packed away the spinnaker because the wind was too strong. I have made some progress since then, even though there is still lots more to learn."

What is the first thing you want to do? "I am going to try and savour this will all my family and friends who have come and even more so as it is my girlfriends birthday today!"

Leg 4 finish times so far...

Pos	Skipper	Boat	Finish time
1	Duthil Frédéric	Distinxion	arrived on 21/08/2007 at 02:20
2	Veniard Gérald	Scutum	2H55
3	Desjoyeaux Michel	Foncia	3H01
4	Berenger Nicolas	KONE Ascenseurs	3H41
5	Drouglazet Eric	Luisina	3H42
6	Le Gal Franck	Lenze	3H47
7	Morvan Gildas	Cercle Vert	3H53
8	Douguet Corentin	E. Leclerc / Bouygues Telecom	3H56
9	Lepesqueux Marc	Rapid' Flore - Caen-La-Mer	4H03
10	Treussart Ronan	Groupe Celeos	4H12
11	Troussel Nicolas	Financo	4H28
12	Mahe Gildas	Le Comptoir Immobilier	4H31
13	Wardley Liz	Sojasun	4H41
14	Chabagny Thierry	Brossard	4H42
15	Pellecuer Laurent	Cliptol Sport	4H44
16	Rouxel Thomas	Défi Mousquetaires	4H49
17	Tripon Armel	Gedimat	5H09
18	Lunven Nicolas	Bostik	5H12
19	de Broc Bertrand	Les Mousquetaires	5H20
20	Pratt Christopher	Espoir Crédit Agricole	5H36
21	Lebas Christophe	LoLa La piscine assemblée	5H41
22	Loison Alexis	ALL MER Inéo Suez	5H43
23	Defert Eric	Suzuki Automobiles	5H43
24	Biarnes Vincent	Côtes d'Armor	5H45
25	D’Ali Pietro	Kappa	5H52
26	Rivet Frédéric	Novotel Caen	5H54
27	Belloir Aymeric	CAP 56	6H04
28	Mouren Jean-Paul	M@rseillEntreprises	6H17
29	Duprey du Vorsent Thierry	Domaine du Mont d'Arbois	6H20
30	Nicol Jean-Pierre	Gavottes	6H34
31	Nagy Robert	Théolia	7H43
32	Emig Marc	A.ST Groupe	7H52
33	Le Miere Grégoire	Basse-Normandie / OTCex Group	7H56
34	Nigon Erik	AXA Atout Coeur Pour AIDES	8H00
35	Bird James	GFI Group	8H20
36	Bos Christian	Belle Ile en Mer	8H27
Pos	Skipper	Boat	Latitude	Longitude	Crs	Spd	DTF
37	Grégoire Jeanne	Banque Populaire	46 28' 43' N	1 48' 83' W	87 º	6.4	1.1 nm
38	Monnet Jean-Charles	Degrémont Suez Source de Talents	46 28' 38' N	1 51' 80' W	79 º	8.5	2 nm
39	Nabart Laurent	Corsica	46 28' 15' N	1 54' 14' W	84 º	8.9	3.6 nm
40	Bougard Patrice	Kogane	46 26' 84' N	1 59' 01' W	72 º	7.7	7.2 nm
41	Le Nabour Quentin	Votre Nom pour Le Figaro	46 21' 81' N	2 02' 66' W	78 º	6.9	11.5 nm
42	Da Cruz Antonio-Pedro	Baïko	46 29' 04' N	2 11' 02' W	76 º	9.1	15.3 nm
43	Thiercelin Marc	Siemens	46 25' 08' N	2 10' 47' W	84 º	8.5	15.3 nm
44	Bulot Jean-François	Crédit Mutuel de Normandie - Ville de Caen	46 11' 70' N	1 52' 69' W	67 º	8.1	16.2 nm
45	O’Rian Paul	City Jet	46 09' 50' N	2 18' 89' W	62 º	5.1	27.9 nm
46	Bouillard Didier	MEDevent	46 27' 15' N	2 44' 49' W	92 º	9.9	38.3 nm
47	Le Meitour Jean-Philippe	Construction DORSO	46 00' 78' N	2 32' 87' W	77 º	5.2	40.9 nm
48	Le Baut Jimmy	Port Olona - Arrimer	45 56' 43' N	2 30' 23' W	75 º	7.3	42.7 nm
ABD	Svilarich Etienne	Grain de Soleil			0 º	0	nm
ABD	King Nigel	Nigel King Yachting			0 º	0	nm

Top 20 overall elapsed times...

Pos Skipper N° Boat Overall elapsed time
1 Desjoyeaux Michel 45 Foncia in 247h 20min 47s
2 Duthil Frédéric 7 Distinxion +26'38''
3 Douguet Corentin 10 E.Leclerc / Bouygues Telecom +01h03'50''
4 Troussel Nicolas 5 Financo +01h41'26''
5 Mahé Gildas 38 Le Comptoir Immobilier +02h14'23''
6 Drouglazet Eric 2 Luisina +02h39'05''
7 Veniard Gérald 4 Scutum +03h16'53''
8 Morvan Gildas 6 Cercle Vert +03h19'48''
9 Rouxel Thomas 97 Défi Mousquetaires +03h29'34''
10 Lepesqueux Marc 70 Rapid'Flore Caen-La-Mer +04h01'11''
11 Berenger Nicolas 68 Koné Ascenseurs +04h05'21''
12 Le Gal Franck 24 Lenze +04h46'01''
13 Chabagny Thierry 92 Brossard +04h48'47''
14 * Lunven Nicolas 19 Bostik +05h11'04''
15 Treussart Ronan 80 Groupe Celeos +05h26'33''
16 Wardley Liz 39 Sojasun +06h26'28''
17 Pellecuer Laurent 31 Cliptol Sport +06h28'06''
18 Pratt Christopher 9 Espoir Crédit Agricole +06h40'00''
19 de Broc Bertrand 55 Les Mousquetaires +07h02'