Tour de France a la Voile - Victory and struggle for Groupama 34

by Vincent Borde on 16 Jul 2013 In the Tour de France a la Voile, having set sail from Lorient at 0600 hours this Monday morning, the twelve competitors took fourteen hours to make St Gilles Croix de Vie, some 85 miles further South.

Regularly in the leading group, Groupama 34 put on a great show of determination and patience to secure first place, as it was only in the last half hour of racing that it managed to overtake Bretagne Crédit Mutuel, the latter still making some very extreme tactical choices.

Obviously more measured in terms of nature and strategy due to its position as leader in the overall ranking, the crew of Groupama 34 has put a stop to the comeback by the second placed boat. Boasting a 33-point lead over the Bretons, they now have a 54-point lead over the boat from Dunkirk, which has benefited from this latest Atlantic sprint to depose the Vendée team from the podium.

With three round-the-cans races scheduled on Tuesday from 1230 hours, there are still a number of points to be distributed before the boats are lifted out onto a trailer to set a course for Rosas in Spain.

This challenge is bound to please a crew that loves races as much as it loves Groupama website