Tour de France à la Voile – Teva Plichart snatches victory in Roses

by A.S.O./Tour de France à la voile on 22 Jul 2016 2016 Tour de France à la Voile – They had a fantastic Act 4 in Baden, finishing second on both racing days. But they never won a race… until today’s stadium racing Grand Final.

Teva Plichart, Pierre Pennec and Manutea Mahai are the team who had one of the best progression since Dunkirk. “We are very proud” said skipper Teva Plichart. “We qualified in extremist for the grand final and then everything worked in our favour. We are so happy. Beating the best teams when one of our crew, Manutea, is still learning to sail is amazing. I think we have less pressure on so we feel more comfortable on the race course. We managed to find a few trims that we did not have before”.

While new winners appear every day, Team Lorina Limonade – Golfe du Morbihan continue to sail with consistency and despite finishing sixth yesterday and third today, they are increasing their lead overall, thanks to Nicolas Troussel average performance. Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne failed in qualifying for inshore Grand Final and their 12th place today offers Limonade precious points towards champion title. “We are very disappointed. We made two big mistakes that we now have to forget quickly, before the race is not over yet”, said Nicolas Troussel briefly after racing.

“It was a great fight until the end. We are happy with the way we sail and finishing third is a good result. We know we won’t win every single Act”, said Matthieu Salomon, Lorina Limonade co-skipper.

After retiring from the coastal race yesterday for missing a mark, Team France Jeune succeeded in bouncing back beautifully scoring a second position in today’s Grand Final. “It’s perfect for our self-confidence. We know we are stronger in stadium racing format. Now we just have to be careful on coastal races because we can lose many points and there are four left”, admitted co-skipper Erwan Fischer.

Team Oman Airports seems to slowly find their marks without Thierry Douillard, who has not stepped onboard since Dieppe due to injury. Today British Stevie Morrison, French Pierre Leboucher, and Omani Abdul Haman Al Mashari qualified for the grand final, where they finished in fifth position. “We didn’t start the day very well”, said Pierre Leboucher, “but we managed to come back in the game, with a win, a second and a third. The wind built up during the day and we were happy with that because it’s more straight forward and we have more time to discuss our choices. It’s more strategical, than tactical. Now we have to stay focused because we will be driving to Gruissan tonight for the next Act tomorrow, with another coastal race. I will prepare the navigation in the car as we are driving there”.