Solitaire du Figaro - Armel Le Cleac'h wins leg 2, Elies still leads

by Marie Le Berrigaud Perochon on 11 Jun 2013 In the 2013 Solitaire du Figaro, 2-time past winner Armel Le Cléac'h on board Banque Populaire, crossed the finish line in Gijon, on the northwestern coast of Spain at 16:21:43 CEST today, June 10th 2013, winning leg two. Le Cleac'h covered the 298 miles from Porto to Gijòn in 2 days, 3 hours and 11 minutes at a theoretical average speed of 5,8 knots. With today's win his personal leg wins record goes up to 6 victories in 10 participations. For Le Cleac'h this also represent the second victory in Gijòn where he triumphed in the 2010 race.

On the final few miles, in a purely match-racing style battle, the skipper from Finistère managed to fend off the continuous attacks from Morgan Lagravière on Vendée, who crossed in second only 59 seconds later, at 16:22:42. Interesting to note that Lagravière came in second in Gijòn in the 2012 edition of the race too. Once on the pontoon, a contented Le Cleac'h commented: 'Up to the line, that young guy (Morgan Lagravière) gave me a hard time. I'm super happy, it was a very good leg. After the first one, it feels good to get a win. It's very good for the morale. I have sailed well, I'm satisfied with how I've sailed, especially on the last 24 hours. I made an excellent strategy and made up for the first leg, that was not that brilliant. I don't know yet how many places I will catch up in the overall... It's good anyway, for me, for my sponsor to finally be able to win a race after so many second places I got recently'. Third place went to Anthony Marchand on Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Performance, who finished at 16:26:12, fourth to Jérémie Beyou on Maître CoQ at 16:28:58 and fifth to leg 1 winner Yann Eliès on Groupe Quéguiner-Leucémie espoir, who thus keeps his provisional overall leadership.

Sam Goodchild on Shelterbox – Disaster Relief was the first non-French skipper to finish in Gijòn. He crossed at 16:52:12, a bit over 30 minutes after leg winner Armel Le Cleac'h (Banque Populaire) in 11th position. A bit more than three minutes behind Goodchild, it was UK's Nick Cherry's turn on Magma Structures to finish at 16:55:36 in 14th position overall. Henry Bomby (Rockfish) after a not very positive start and first part of the leg made a brilliant recovery, finishing in 20th with a gap of only 1 hour and 18 minutes on the winner. Edmund Hill (Artemis 37), who has been trailing the fleet since the first few hours of the leg, is expected to get to Gijòn later today. The only female entrant this year race, Claire Pruvot (Port de Caen Ouistreham), was the first rookie in Gijòn. The young match-racer turned offshore skipper closed in 16th overall, preceding by a few minutes her most serious adversaries in the special newcomer category David Kenefick (Full Irish) and Jackson Bouttell (Artemis 77) who finished in 18th in 19th respectively and separated by an incredible 31 seconds gap after more than two days at sea. Bouttell who was first in the opening leg with a ten minutes lead on Pruvot should then be able to keep his leadership among the 'bizuths' as they are known in France. Sam Goodchild (Shelterbox – Disaster Relief) 11th overall on leg 2: 'That was a lot better than the first one for me, even if it's 11th and not eighth, I much preferred it because I feel I sailed better as opposed to get lucky and finish eighth. So I'm very happy. The Key moment was after Finisterre, going around Ortegal, that bit of land when you turn the corner and you go right... There was a lot to play there and I went from the back to near the front so that was good. The first bit off Portugal was quite difficult, one small difference made quite a big overall impact and that was quite hard to get control on, but after that it was trying and be near people. First part was horrible, didn't enjoyed it all, I felt very disappointed and fairly down. Thankfully I caught up again. After there was some gybing to do, some I did good, some badly but all in all it paid off'. Morgan Lagravière (Vendée) second in leg 2: 'I must have something for second places, because it is the third time in three years! Unfortunately I skipped victory for almost nothing: Armel (Le Cléac'h) covered till the end to stop me from overtaking. I'm happy because on the overall there are some who have taken some time. And mentally this is pretty pleasant for the rest of the race to come. We are only mid-way and there is still a lot to play for. It's important to be self-confident, to believe in one's skills and performance. Even if we slept quite a lot, these are very tiring legs...' Nick Cherry (Magma Structures) 14th in leg 2: 'I never really knew where the wind was coming from, I tried to stay in the middle of the boats and point towards the finish and in the end the wind came in, so I'm happy. The key moment was when the wind filled in at the end, I stayed out and some of the boats were stuck inside. I decided to stay in the fleet because I wasn't really sure what boats were around me so if I had it totally wrong, I still had half of the boats behind me. Tha was my best guess... and it worked out ok. Compared to the first leg I felt pretty similar, I had more sleep, so I feel pretty good now, It was a bit easier than the first one. My goal is to be in the top half and I'm being at the moment so I'm super happy'. La Solitaire website