Tour de France à la Voile 2013 - Dieppe to Deauville Offshore Leg

Playing the morning's shifts

After a postponed start and eight hours of motoring along the Normandy coast, all 12 M34s met at 5.30am off Saint-Adresse to begin the third leg of the Tour de France a la Voile from Dieppe to Deauville in more wind. After a 6.20am start, Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite went on to master the shifty conditions and win the leg.

"We are getting better and better," confessed the skipper of Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite Nicolas Troussel after the finish in Deauville. The team from Brittany picked the right side of the racecourse and sailed in more breeze than their competitors. They raced right next to Groupama 34 until the finish line.

Courrier Dunkerque 3 raced well also, taking second ahead of Franck Cammas' team. Daniel Souben says that "Groupama rounded the offset mark first and it was tough to come back on them" but Dunkerque skipper succeeded.

Right behind Cammas, Normandie amateurs are delighted with their 4th place. They now lead the amateur ranking and are tied for points with the German team, Iskareen.

It's a different mood onboard Sodebo today. They placed 10th in Deauville after a series of tactical errors and a bit of bad luck.

But the Tour is a long race and today's changes in results are all the proof. In-port racing resumes tomorrow in Deauville.

Quotes:

Nicolas Troussel, Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite skipper:
"The crew is making strides, working together as a team better and better. We are thrilled to earn our first victory here in Deauville!"

Daniel Souben, Courrier Dunkerque 3 skipper:
"Deauville may mark a shift in the Tour. Finishing ahead of Sodebo was not our primary objective, but it feels great. The fact is that Bretagne Credit Mueuel Elite is out in front. As our main competitor they are the focus and we must do better."

Jean-Luc Nélias, Sodebo navigator:
"We've been leading for a while before lacking speed and loosing ground on others. We went from a good position to a not-so-good one. It happened downwind before the Ouistreham mark. We were a mess and we lost two more places, dropping from 8th to 10th place."

Alex Loison, Normandie:
"It's amazing to place 4th amongst all of these professional teams, plus now we're leading the amateur ranking ahead of Iskareen. The crew gave it their all and we kept supporting one another. At 5:30am we struggled to keep our eyes open, but we passed around a mug of coffee and said 'it's a short leg, let's do something with it."

Ranking after 12 races:

1 GROUPAMA 34, CAMMAS Franck 443 pts - Blue Spinnaker
2 BRETAGNE CREDIT MUTUEL ELITE, TROUSSEL Nicolas 407 pts
3 COURRIER DUNKERQUE 3, SOUBEN Daniel 402 pts
4 TEAM OMANSAIL, POULIGNY Cédric 396 pts
5 SODEBO, COVILLE Thomas 374 pts
6 VILLE DE GENEVE - CARREFOUR ADDICTIONS, METTRAUX Elodie-Jane et GROUX Nicolas 353 pts
7 TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE - COYCH, BERNAZ Jean-Baptiste 341 pts
8 NANTES - SAINT NAZAIRE - E.LECLERC, DOUGUET Corentin 340 pts
9 NORMANDIE, CHOQUENET Baptiste 305 pts
10 ISKAREEN, DITTMERS Christiane et BRUHNS Sönke 305 pts
11 MARTINIQUE - BE.BRUSSELS, WOLTERS Delphine et MOURES Matthieu 278 pts
12 BIENNE - VOILE – SRS, PETER Luzius et KUNZ François 267 pts

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