Leg two victory for Morvan

La Solitaire du Figaro reaches St Gilles, as the Artemis skippers share their reactions

Gildas Morvan scored the second significant French victory this week for a 'green' boat when he drove his Cercle Vert into Saint Gilles Croix de Vie in first place on leg two of la Solitaire du Figaro. Cercle Vert crossed the line at 21:58:28 UTC in a time of 2 days, 11 hours, 28 minutes and 28 seconds after the 451 miles of racing from Gijón in northern Spain.

Morvan led out of Gijón on Sunday but then spent most of the northerly crossing of the Bay of Biscay jockeying for the lead with 2009 Solitaire winner Nicolas Lunven on Generali. Morvan regained the lead from Lunven on Monday late afternoon but remained in contact until the end in a prolonged reaching race under spinnaker, finishing just 3 minutes and 17 seconds behind the 'green giant'.

Leg one winner Yann Elies on Groupe Queguiner - Journal des Entreprises was home in third, seven minutes behind Lunven, enough for him to retain the overall lead with a comfortable (in Figaro terms) cushion of just over 30 minutes on second placed Morgan Lagravière on Vendee. Lagravière, last year's rookie winner finished in 12th, 32 minutes after Morvan.

Morvan commented: "Starting from Gijon my goal was to put everything back in place after my bad first leg. I had to go on the attack and be aggressive from the outset - that was the main idea. I went across the ridge, with more wind and more speed. On Monday morning I could not get out in front of Lunven and I did not understand why, but then I discovered I had a bag across the keel which proved impossible to remove. I had to drop the spinnaker, back up before I could leave it behind. After that it was a fight. I managed to get back in the lead to the west of Sein and there I knew it was also a key point. I'm happy because I managed to carry on like that for almost all of the race. I was in shape on the last day because I slept well before and I really didn't want to let up, regularly checking on algae and plastic around the keel and the trim - you had to be on all of it to ensure you lost nothing and weren't caught. I have held off Nico Lunven and for me that's fabulous. The goal is to win the third stage and on that there will be plenty of things to do with currents in which to play."

Yann Elies commented: "I'm happy with third place because this time the situation was not the same once we got back into the Bay of Biscay. I was 4-5000m behind but had the opportunity to make progress down the coast, and I finished seven minutes behind Nicolas Lunven so it is not that bad.

But I'll have to improve my starts. For now that is not my strong point and it can play tricks on me. But I managed to salvage it each time. It's more complicated when you start to come back down the coast, where you have more opportunities. I slept well this afternoon. We had a long gybe across from where my backup driver could steer properly. I can feel well rested."

The Artemis Offshore Academy's Nick Cherry narrowly missed out on being first rookie on this leg, with Julien Villion on Seixo Promotion pipping him to the post. Team mate Sam Goodchild was first Brit home in 24th place, 1 hour and 16 minutes behind Morvan.

Nick Cherry commented on his arrival: “I started badly, did okay in the middle and then lost a few places at the end. It’s a bit frustrating, but I am happy with the overall result. I was the first rookie until the end when I let two past. It would have been good if I had finished first. I feel pretty tired and I have a lot to think about, where it went well and where it went badly. I am pleased to be in now.”

Henry Bomby added: “I feel very tired, I’ve used a lot of energy to get here and I am looking forward to going to bed. Tomorrow morning I will start sorting the boat out and looking towards leg three, but right now I am pretty tired. The race is a lot tougher than you think. A lot of people say it’s hard and you can only imagine how hard until you do it. It’s learning to overcome problems like this and not letting them turn into a big deal so you can overcome them and focus on the positive aspects and finish.”

Leg two finish times (French time)

Combined elapsed times for legs one and two