| France. Tour de France a la Voile: Ile de France wins the longest offshore leg |
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| Saturday, 08 July 2006 | |
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Flavie Caulier: The Mumm30 left Le Havre last night at 21.00 and crossed the finish line tonight after 23.00 in Saint-Quay Portrieux, near Saint Brieuc in Côtes d'Armor. The longest leg of this 29th Tour de France à la Voile. 155 miles in some of the most difficult waters in the English Channel. Rocks, tides, currents... Welcome to Brittany! Jean-Pierre Nicol and his crew onboard ILE DE FRANCE finished first on the line, followed by MATONDO CONGO – Route de l'équateur, and DÉFI PARTAGÉ MARSEILLE. The first 100% professionnal podium since the start of this TFV in Dunkerque last week. In the Overall Ranking, ILE DE FRANCE is taking the Red Spinnaker back from the Swiss team of VILLE DE GENÈVE – CARREFOUR PRÉVENTION. Jean Pierre Nicol, skipper of ILE DE FRANCE: 'these long legs are always easier to digest when you win them! We managed to come back in the game in the end. In the last few years, we had some troubles in the light conditions, so we trained a lot last winter and it seems to be paying off!' Pierre-Loïc Berthet, skipper of MATONDO CONGO – Route de l'équateur: 'it's becoming an habit this year to finish in very light winds. But this was a very nice leg. The gap between the boats was already quite big after the first long tack upwind to the Cotentin Peninsula. Then we had another turning point in La Hague. And all the boats got closer again in the last few miles before the finish. We are very happy with this second place but there is still a lot of races to sail and the conditions have not been easy so far'. Dimitri Deruelle, skipper of DÉFI PARTAGÉ MARSEILLE: 'it's was a pretty hard leg, with all type of conditions. We had to be polyvalent... We managed to catch up the leaders, step by step and we are very happy about it. Now we are where we should be!' At the skippers briefing last night in Le Havre, the Race Committee said they might cancel four races (1, 5, 6 and 8) that have been delayed earlier this week, and start race 10 again on sunday 9th july in Saint-Quay Portrieux. Ranking and positions: http://www.tourvoile.fr/site/classement.php?jourClassement=2006-07-07 Tour de France à la Voile 29th edition – from june 29th to july 29th 2006 Mumm 30 (9,43m one design) 31 entries (10 pro / 11 amateur / 9 student) 14 stopovers – about 1000 miles along the french coasts www.tourvoile.fr |
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 08 July 2006 ) |
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