Sea, Sail & Surf newsTour de France à la voile
Région Ile de France leads overall again
dimanche 28 juillet 2002 –
Jimmy Pahun’s Région Ile de France is leading overall again after today’s two races sailed outside Nice. Pascal Bidégorry at the helm had good speed and made the right calls reading the shifts perfectly. "We sailed as we always do but Nantes-St-Nazaire was controlling ourselves too much and therefore lost a few points in the first race. As far as pressure is concerned, you just have to try to think about nothing but your boat speed", commented Pascal Bidégorry.
The first race of the day, a windward/leeward, was raced in very fickle conditions. It was very patchy with puffs and holes all the way through. The wind dramatically shifted to the right during the second beat which made the last run extremely tricky. Swiss boat Team Bienne Voile that snatched victory in that first race. Lorenz Muller, the skipper commented on that first victory : "We’re used to sail in these conditions on our lakes and we managed to read the shifts quite well. As an amateur boat, these conditions are our only chance to win a race".
Région Ile de France and Nantes-St-Nazaire controlled each other for most of the race. Jimmy Pahun’s boat rounded the marks in 8th position just ahead of Pierre-Loïc Berthet’s boat. But the last run played a trick to the former overall leader who lost a few places just before the line and end up in 12th position. That was already 3 points lost to Région Ile de France, which was only 8,75 points behind in the ranking.
Swiss boat Ville de Genève Carrefour Prévention, skippered by Etienne David, have diminished their chance of winning this event. On the race course they practised damage limitation. They were 24th at the top mark but managed to gain lots of places and crossed the finish line in 12th position just behind Nantes-St-Nazaire. The Swiss who had been leading overall for a long time in the regatta seemed to have lost confidence a few days ago and couldn’t find a way to bounce back.
Before the start of the second race, the wind increased and became steadier. The second race was a coastal race. The gun fired to see again too many boats over the line which caused a general recall. As for the previous race, the second start was black flagged but no boats got disqualified. The race was mostly played during the first beat. It paid for the boats that favoured starting at the race committee boat thus favoured the right. Thierry Bouchard’s Défi Partagé rounded the top mark in first ahead of Etienne David’s Ville de Genève Carrefour Prévention. Région Ile de France was in third but managed to come back to second position at the next mark and maintained it. As after the first beat and first run, it was a matter of boats speed and the positions remained the same. Nantes-St-Nazaire lost leadership when they passed the first mark in 12th position. Though, they managed to gain a few places and finished in 9th, it was not enough to prevent Jimmy Pahun and his team retrieving the red spinnaker.
There are now only 2,5 points between the top two boats. Therefore, tension will be at breaking point tomorrow during the final scoring race of the Tour de France à la Voile 2002. The start of the race is scheduled at 11:00.
Isabelle Musy
Overall results before jury with one discard
1. Région Ile de France / Jimmy Pahun 1805 points
2. Nantes-St-Nazaire / Pierre Loic Berthet 1802,5 points
3. Ville de Genève Carrefour Prévention / Etienne David 1783,25 points
4. Panther Team GBR / Rob Greenhalgh 1667,5 points
5. Défi Partagé / Thierry Bouchard 1661,25 points
6. Marseille / Dimitri Deruelle 1613 points
7. Ville d’Antibes –NEC / Julien Farnarier 1591 points
8. Dieppe-Seine Maritime / Gildas Philippe 1572,5 points
9. Côtes d’Armor Toztes Voiles dehors / Vincent Biarnes 1563,5 points
10. Force EDC / Simon Sutherland 1554 points (1st student boat)Dans la même rubrique
Tour de France à la voile : Marseille claims victory in the last offshore race
Tour de France à la voile : Force EDC claims their first victory
tour de France à la voile : The rock and roll race of the regatta
Tour de France à la voile : Marseille’s Mistral leads Panther Team GBR to victory
