Vuelta a España a Vela - A thrilling cliff-hanger to the end

by Vuelta a España a Vela on 15 Jun 2010 Vuelta a España a Vela, leg two update: After 110 miles of tough, mainly upwind racing and a thrilling, tight finish only three minutes and 12 seconds separated the top three teams when they crossed the finish line in Gijon.

France’s past Vendée Globe winner Vincent Riou, sailing with Jean Le Cam and crew on the new PRB reaped the benefit of one, small favourable wind shift to take the winning gun and the overall lead of the Vuelta España a Vela.

At 01:04.12hrs (local time) PRB lead near her near sister-ship Safran across the finish line with the leg 1 winner only one minute and 59 seconds later, with Spain’s Movistar of Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez only 1 minute and 13 seconds behind the IMOCA world champion Guillemot.

The second leg from Santander was only decided in the final miles, on the approach to Gijon. A sudden wind shift was the opportunity for PRB to gain whilst the Spanish team Movistar came frustratingly close to fulfilling the belief that Martínez stated only 14 or so hours earlier: that they could win against their French rivals: “We are going to battle hard. We are in the Vuelta España to fight for victory'. Movistar led, but dropped two places on the wind shift to take their second third place.

“Through that final sprint there was nothing in it. It was very open and uncertain. Although PRB escaped from us we were fighting with Movistar,” said Safran skipper Marc Guillemot, “And to be honest the Movistar guys deserved more than third.”

Behind the top three the Santander pair Pachi Rivero and Toño Piris on W Hotels Nova Bocana crossed the finish line in fourth at 02:01:51hrs, 57 minutes after PRB while Estrella Damm of Pepe Ribes and Alex Pella again got the better of Dee Caffari and Anna Corbella on GAES Centros Auditivo, who took sixth. The British skipper again rued a small crewing error when they were ahead of the Barcelona team which cost them time and distance.

Caffari said: “It was a bit frustrating because after a bad start when our engine problems revisited us it had kind of put us on the back foot at the start, and we were late, we had put our problems behind us and were back in the fleet. Our boat speed was good.”

“When we tacked we were with Safran and Movistar. Then we left W Hotels and Estrella Damm and we had good boatspeed. Then we crash tacked and lost a lot of time and some miles.” But then we worked really hard and found ourselves back with Estrella Damm, the same as Leg one, tacking to the finish with them in the Bay. Next time we are determined to be in front of Estrella Damm tacking to the finish!”

The local team on Central Lechera Asturiana, still in their early stages with their IMOCA Open 60 which was formerly Ecover 2, could not profit any more from their hard work than the seventh place they took, whilst Jaume Mumbrú and Cali Sanmartí on Pakea with Unai Basurko, completed the stage in eighth place.


Second leg results, Santander-Gijón, 110 miles

1st PRB, Vincent Riou (FRA) Arrival 01:04:12h
2nd Safran, Marc Guillemot (FRA) Arrival 01:06:11h
3rd Movistar, Iker Martínez (ESP) and Xabier Fernández (ESP) Arrival 01:07:24h
4th W Hotels-Nova Bocana, Pachi Rivero (ESP) and Toño Piris (ESP) Arrival 02:01:51h
5th Estrella Damm, Pepe Ribes (ESP) and Alex Pella (ESP) Arrival 02:49:22h
6th GAES Centros Auditivos, Dee Caffari (GBR) and Anna Corbella (ESP) Arrival 03:17:26h
7th Central Lechera Asturiana, Juan Merediz (ESP) and Fran Palacio (ESP) Arrival 03:32:27h
8th Pakea Bizkaia, Jaume Mumbrú (ESP) and Cali Sanmartí (ESP) Arrival 03:55:20h

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