Tour de France à la Voile - Battle for victory heats up

by www.sail-world.com / A.S.O on 16 Jul 2012 In the Tour de France a la Voile, there are only four points left between Courrier Dunkerque 3, overall leader and winner of the first technical race sailed today in Talmont St Hilaire, and TPM-Coych, second overall and winner of the second race of the day; perfect sailing conditions for a fight, that keeps getting tighter.

Eighteen knots of northwest wind, local swell and sunshine were the ideal conditions of the two races sailed today in Vendée, right in front of the marina of Port-Bourgenay.

The first race got underway at 2pm with a good start for Courrier Dunkerque 3 and a bad one for their direct rival TPM-Coych. 'We were behind the line,' explains the co-skipper Tugdual Becquemie, 'Then our skipper Fabien Henry positioned us well on the first upwind bit. We were third at the upwind mark. Once back in the game, we sailed well and fast. We were even leading at the last mark but didn’t want to risk it and Courrier Dunkerque 3 was better on the last bit. They took a beautiful victory.'

Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite takes the third place; the amateurs of Ville de Genève-Carrefour Prévention another impressive fourth place. A day for the amateurs, with a sixth place for Bred / La Normandie and an eighth one for the Dutch students from TU Delft.

TPM-Coych won the second race, leaving Courrier Dunkerque 3 behind, in fourth place. BAE Systems finished second, Nantes St Nazaire E.Leclerc third. Bred / La Normandie and TU Delft kept shining – taking seventh and ninth place.

Twenty races have been sailed so far in the Tour de France à la Voile 2012. The two worst coefficients have now been removed. Rankings remain the same with Courrier Dunkerque 3 still leading overall, still hoisting the blue spinnaker, and a threatening TPM-Coych - now only four points away.

Another technical race will be sailed tomorrow at 10am before taking the boats out of the

Tugdual Becquemie – co-skipper, TPM Coych (Second and first in Races 8.1 and 8.2): 'An ideal day for us, a day of two and one. We said this morning we wanted to stay on our way up, sailing good races and if possible coming back on Courrier Dunkerque – without being obsessed about them neither! The mood is excellent onboard; we’ve been feeling it for a week now. Everyone wants the same thing. A new race is starting, a new motivation.

'A certain hierarchy starts to appear in terms of boat speed. Thankfully, we are in the good group. Truth is, we can hear on the dock – ‘TPM is fast, TPM is fast, TPM is fast’. That’s for the better! It surely helps us. The fastest boat wins the Tour.'

Bertrand Castelnérac – bowman, Courrier Dunkerque 3 (First and Fourth in Races 8.1 and 8.2): 'Our mood didn’t change – our level of tiredness, yes. We’ve been caught by surprise! Most of us sailed the entire race since the start. We’ve done the Tour for the past 10 years and we thought we were all over the tiredness bit. Yet, we’ve been surprised. And we might have missed things we wouldn’t usually miss. I still think though that the level on the water is as high – if not higher – than it was at the start. Anyway, the fight will be on until the last day with our rival TPM – and all of our rivals. No doubt about that.'

Provisional general ranking after 20 races:

1 - Courrier Dunkerque 3 (FRA 08) - Daniel Souben, 574 pts - SPI BLEU
2 - Toulon Provence Mediterranee –Coych (FRA 07) - Fabien Henry / Tugdual Becquemie,570 pts
3 - Bretagne - Credit Mutuel Elite (FRA 18) - Nicolas Troussel, 544 pts
4 - BAE Systems (OMA 4) - Cédric Pouligny, 527 pts
5 -Ville De Geneve – Carrefour Prevention (SUI 19) - Jérôme Clerc / Elodie Mettraux, 515 pts
6 - Nantes Saint Nazaire - E.Leclerc (FRA 6) - Corentin Douguet, 501 pts
7 - Ile De France (FRA 1) - Vincent Aillaud, 490 pts
8 - Bred / La Normandie (FRA 15), skippé par Arthur Herreman / Baptiste Choquenet, 428 pts
9 - Cotes D'Armor Bretagne (FRA 14) - Josselin Le Moine, 419 pts
10 - Tu Delft (NED 1) - Pieter Van Notten, 398 pts
11 - Region De Bruxelles - Capitale / Brussels Hoofstedelijk Gewest (BEL 2) - Bertrand Pacé, 389 pts
12 - Martinique - Mediabat (FRA 2) - Mathieu Mourès, 376 pts
13 - Iskareen (GER 11) - Christiane Dittmers / Sönke Bruhns, 362 pts
14 - Bienne Voile - SRS (SUI 22) - Lorenz Mueller / François Kunz, 289 pts

Provisional amateur ranking after 20 races:

1 - Ville de Genève - Carrefour Prévention, Elodie Jane Mettraux / Jérôme Clerc, 515 pts- Spi Rose
2 - Bred / La Normandie, Arthur Herreman / Baptiste Choquenet, 428 pts
3 - Côtes d'Armor Bretagne, Josselin Le Moine, 419 pts

Provisional technical ranking after 15 races:

1 - Courrier Dunkerque 3 (FRA 08) - Daniel Souben / 346 pts
2 - Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite, Nicolas Troussel / 329 pts Spi Rouge
3 - Toulon Provence Mediterranee – Coych (FRA 07) - Fabien Henry / Tugdual Becquemie, 316 pts

Provisional offshore ranking after five races:

1 - Toulon Provence Méditerranée - Coych, Fabien Henry, 317 pts Spi Vert
2 - Courrier Dunkerque 3 (FRA 08) - Daniel Souben / 300 pts
3 - Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite (FRA 18) - Nicolas Troussel, 292 Event website