50th La Solitaire URGO Le Figaro Leg 1 - Day 4
by La Solitaire URGO Le Figaro 6 Jun 2019 20:30 BST
6 June 2019
Yoann Richomme wins stage 1 of the 50th Solitaire URGO Le Figaro © Alexis Courcoux
The overall winner of the 2016 La Solitaire Yoann Richomme (Hellowork/Le Telegramme), crossed the finish line off Kinsale's Old Head at 19:01:21hrs this evening to secure a narrow victory (provisional before jury) in the 542 nautical miles first stage of the 50th edition of La Solitaire URGO Le Figaro.
Richomme, who lead around the Fastnet Rock at 12:29hrs this afternoon, took the first gun after 4d 03h 36m and 21s, just 1 minute and 13 seconds ahead of rookie Tom Laperche (Bretagne CMB Espoir). Following closely across the finish, in bright sunshine and on the heels of A dying 10-12knot westerly breeze, was Frances 2012 470 Olympian Pierre Leboucher (Guyot Environment) who was 3 minutes and 47 seconds behind winner Richomme.
Richomme, outstanding winner of the Route du Rhum in Class 40 last November, has come into this race feeling none of the pressure heaped on some of his rivals. After Volvo Ocean Race winning skipper Charles Caudrelier seized an opportunity to become co-skipper of the Gitana Ultime, Richomme was drafted in as a late replacement for Caudrelier for whom he started out in the Figaro as preparateur.
He and Leboucher led a group who took a middle course off Ushant and then stuck with it across the approaches to the Channel and over the Celtic Sea. Their choice allowed them to gain relative to a strong pack who went offshore to the west, which ultimately suffered last night when the wind swung more to the north.
Around three miles behind Richomme, veteran Loïck Peyron, the elder statesman of the course at 59 years old will be happy to hold on to the sixth place he was in during this afternoon's sunny slide east along the Irish coast to the finish line. Peyron is returning to La Solitaire for the first time since he was sixth overall in 2003. He had his 'roaring 50s' rivals Michel Desjoyeaux, 53, less than a mile behind in ninth place and Alain Gautier, 57, in 12th. Peyron said at the Fastnet: "I'm 30 miles from the finish. It's not bad to avoid the last vagaries of the wind on this coast to get finished tonight."
Highly fancied favourite Armel Le Cléac'h (Banque Populaire) may have rescued some of his chances of a good finish overall by recovering from being among the back markers on Tuesday to be 13th on the reach in this afternoon, but the same might not hold true for the group of top seeds who went west, led by three times winner Yann Eliès (Saint Michel). Eliès - who led during the second day of racing - was nearly three and a half hours behind at the Fastnet Rock.
Admirable recoveries appear to have been achieved by international skippers Justine Mettraux of Switzerland on course for 14th and Brit Alan Roberts (Seacat Services) who was 16th, both around one hour behind the leaders.
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