Tour de France a la Voile - The game is wide open

by Fabienne Morin on 12 Jul 2014 The Tour de France à la Voile 2014 is a wide open game. And this Friday in Granville has been a perfect example. It was a busy day on the water. The M34 fleet had three more inshore races in their agenda, and the objective for Fabien Henry and his crew was to keep Courrier Dunkerque behind them. Mission accomplished for team Groupama 34 who grabs two wins and a third and reduces the gap over the leader by five points.

The other win of the day goes to Bretagne - Crédit Mutuel Elite. Nicolas Troussel climbs up the leaderboard, in third. Ville de Genève – Carrefour Addictions also proved to be very consistent today with a two second places and a fourth. The Swiss team is now only two points behind Normandy - Acerel overall.

Team Omansail is disappointed. The Omani crew had a bad day on the water with a fifth, a sixth and a seventh. They lose their third place overall and are now two points behind Bretagne Crédit Mutuel.

Tomorrow the nine M34 will leave the dock in Granville at 6.30 to cross the start line at 7am for the third offshore leg of this edition, that will take them to Roscoff in North Brittany, where they are expected at 11pm

Tanguy Cariou, tactician onboard Groupama: 'It was important for us to do well today, for the whole team, the sailors, but also the shore crew. We have reorganised many little things in the way we work onboard. The racing was not as easy as it seems to be looking at our results. The tide was very strong and the wind was a bit shifty. It was stressful on the water as we had to keep an eye on everyone. But we sailed well, much better that yesterday and the day before. We never lost faith but we could have had some doubts if we didn’t have a good day today. We are still behind in points on the leaderboard but it’s a challenge for us now.'

Christian Ponthieu, tactician onboard Normandy – Acerel: 'The day did not start as well as we could have wished for but we kept improving and we finished with a nice third place so we are very happy. On the Corinthian ranking, we are increasing our lead, so that’s a good news. But the most important is to see how we go up the learning curve. We are learning together. The pace is full-on since the beginning of the Tour and we are getting tired, but it’s the case for everyone, so we are not worried about it.'

Marin Lauber, spinnaker trimmer onboard Ville de Genève – Carrefour Addictions: 'We are very happy with our day. This is the kind of conditions we like, with a light to moderate wind. We had a good boat speed but the most important today was to call the good tactics. The wind was shifty and we had to take the tide into consideration. In the last race, we took a bad start and we managed to catch up and pass a couple of boats. This is very encouraging. The crew is a bit tired since the offshore leg yesterday. Now we want to have a good night sleep because it’s going to be a long day tomorrow, with potentially light wind upwind all the way to Roscoff.'

Overall ranking:
1 Courrier Dunkerque 3, Daniel Souben 430 pts
2 Groupama 34, Franck Cammas 413 pts
3 Bretagne - Crédit Mutuel Elite, skipper Nicolas Troussel 402pts
4Team OmanSail, skipper, Sidney Gavignet 400 pts
5 Normandy – Acerel, Baptiste Choquenet 376 pts
6 Ville de Genève – Carrefour Addictions, Nicolas Groux 374 pts
7 Toulon Provence Méditerranée, Florian Simonnot 363 pts
8 Nantes Saint-Nazaire, Jean-Baptiste Gellée 331 pts
9 Be Brussels Bienne Voile, Delphine Wolters et Yann Burkhalter 312 pts

Offshore leg ranking:
1 – Courrier Dunkerque 3, Daniel Souben 197 pts
2 – Bretagne – Crédit Mutuel Elite, Nicolas Troussel, 186 pts
3 – Team Oman Sail, Sidney Gavignet, 184 pts (…)

Technical ranking:
1 Groupama 34, Franck Cammas 238 pts
2 Courrier Dunkerque 3, Daniel Souben 233 pts
3 Ville de Genève – Carrefour Addictions, skipper, Nicolas Groux 219 pts (…)

Amateur ranking:
1 Normandy - Acerel, Baptiste Choquenet 376 pts
2 Toulon Provence Méditerranée, Florian Simonnot 363 pts
3 Nantes Saint-Nazaire, Jean-Baptiste Gellée 331 pts
4 Be Brussels Bienne Voile, Delphine Wolters et Yann Burkhalter 312 pts Event website