First victory for Cardinal FenêtréA at Tour de France à la Voile
by A.S.O./Tour de France à la voile on 25 Jul 2016
Tour de France à la Voile - 25 July, 2016 Jean-Marie Liot / ASO
It was another hot day and light winds on the water today in Marseille, but Act seven stadium racing saw a different winner. A new winner. Cardinal FenêtréA, skippered by Erwan Le Roux and Mathieu Souben, snatched their first victory so far in the Tour.
'It was so tricky today, very hard to read the race course. But it was Julien Villion’s birthday so it was nice to get him champagne for afternoon tea!', said Mathieu Souben after racing. 'We are getting stronger and stronger. In the qualifying races we got fifth, fourth, third and first and then we won the grand final. I think we found the key to success. We were second at the first mark and then we took advantage to Team Coved making a mistake, and sneak in the lead.'
Talking about their performance so far in the Tour, Mathieu Souben admitted: 'We needed more time to find our feet as we didn’t know we would do the event about a month before the start. We’ve had a giid learning curve and we don’t have pressure for results.'
In a north-westerly breeze not exceeding 10 knots, the race committee managed to lay four qualifying races before the best six teams accessed to the grand final at 3.45pm. It was in fact seven teams, as Pays de l’Or Hérault and Team France Jeune finished on equal points. But in the grand final, the young Team France Jeune sailed a great race and scored a second place.
'Race committee had to move the course a few times due to wind shifts. It must have been hard for them', said Robin Follin from Team France Jeune. 'The game today was to be the most consistent and we started with three great results (1-3-1), but nearly lost the grand final on the last qualifying race. This is our third podium in stadium racing format, but we struggle a bit more in coastal racing because we are not used to it. We’ve lost about thirty points so far in this format due to navigation mistakes. We definitely have to work harder on it.'
Young and Amateur ranking is getting tighter tonight with only five points separating first boat Lorina Mojito – Golfe du Morbihan to third Natixis-Yacht Club de Saint-Lunaire. While overall, event leader Lorina Limonade extends its lead despite a sixth place in today’s inshore grand final, their second worst result so far.
The TDFV competitors will now have a last day-off tomorrow as the event moves to Hyères for Act eight, to start on Wednesday with a coastal race.
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