Three in a row for Cammas

Tour Voile in port racing was held today off St Gilles

There were three inshore races today off St Gilles to complete the Atlantic segment of the 2013 Tour de France a la Voile. Groupama won every races. Now it’s time to organise, with all of the M34s set to be transported from France to Roses in Spain.

The first race today began at 12:30 in 10 knots of wind from the WNW. Groupama 34 led the race from start to finish, expertly negotating a right hand wind shift during the second leg.

It was the same story for the second race, and only during race three did Ville de Genève Carrefour AddictionS threaten Cammas' team rounding the windward mark in the lead. Regardless, Cammas won.

Second overall, Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite did not do well today (6, 11, 8). Nicolas Troussel is now 55 points behind Cammas. Daniel Souben on Courrier Dunkerque 3 is still in third place, 8 points behind Troussel. Normandie is leading the amateurs, 30 points ahead of Martinique BE Brussels.

To date there have been 22 races, comprising six offshore legs and 16 inshore races.

Racing will resume on Saturday 20 July in Roses, Spain. There will be 15 races in the Mediterranean, including three offshore legs and 12 inshore races. The second half of the Tour can easily change the situation: “We’ve already seen teams losing all their lead in the Mediterranean Sea,” remembers Daniel Souben.

Tanguy Cariou, tactician on Groupama 34 commented: “We wanted to be strong from the beginning and it worked out well for us in Dunkirk. We know there would be lots of in-port racing from Dieppe to Lorient and it’s difficult to control your competitors during those races. We’ve done well even though we didn’t excel offshore. In-port racing is important to put pressure on the others. They actually improved: Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite is good offshore, it’s the opposite for Courrier Dunkerque and Sodebo is rather consistent.”

Overall results after 22 races:

1 GROUPAMA 34, CAMMAS Franck 868 pts - Blue spinnaker
2 BRETAGNE CREDIT MUTUEL ELITE, TROUSSEL Nicolas 813 pts
3 COURRIER DUNKERQUE 3, SOUBEN Daniel 805 pts
4 SODEBO, COVILLE Thomas 786,7 pts
5 TEAM OMANSAIL, POULIGNY Cédric 769 pts
6 TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE - COYCH, BERNAZ Jean-Baptiste 691 pts
7 VILLE DE GENEVE - CARREFOUR ADDICTIONS, METTRAUX Elodie-Jane et GROUX Nicolas 681 pts
8 NANTES - SAINT NAZAIRE - E.LECLERC, DOUGUET Corentin 664 pts
9 NORMANDIE, CHOQUENET Baptiste 626 pts
10 MARTINIQUE - BE.BRUSSELS, WOLTERS Delphine et MOURES Matthieu 596 pts
11 ISKAREEN, DITTMERS Christiane et BRUHNS Sönke 584 pts
12 BIENNE - VOILE – SRS, PETER Luzius et KUNZ François 539 pts