2019 Tour Voile - Day 7

Team Réseau IXIO - 2019 Tour Voile © Jean-Marie Liot / ASO

Team Réseau IXIO - Toulon Provence Méditerranée, with two of last year's winners on board, won the 2019 Tour Voile Act 3 Stade Nautique Final off Jullouville to keep the pressure on the top two teams, Beijaflore and Cheminées Poujoulat.

Kevin Peponnet, France's 2018 470 world championship winning helm, is sailing as stand in for injured skipper Sandro Lacan. Reunited temporarily with Tim Mourniac - with whom he won last year's Tour on Lorina Limonade, Peponnet steered Team Réseau IXIO to lead all the way round the Final and left their two podium rivals trailing in their wake on a beautiful sunny afternoon during which the sea breeze built nicely to deliver and exciting final.

Peponnet who is heading to Japan on 470 duty grinned, "It was my last day aboard IXIO and this victory is a nice parting gift! Sandro Lacan, who was injured, will be back aboard in Les Sables d'Olonne. He is a very talented guy and I am sure these guys will manage to hold on to this momentum. And there is a nice match at the top of the leaderboard. Whoever makes the least mistakes will win in Nice! "

Cheminées Poujoulat took second but after a dominant display in qualifying general classification leaders Beijaflore fought back from fourth to third.

Guillaume Pirouelle of Team Beijaflore recalled, "We started with a very average first round but we managed to bounce back. We can do it. For the moment our worst place on this Tour is 4th. That is good because mistakes are always costly."

Adding to their coastal race win in Fécamp, today's stadium triumph on the Bay of Mont Saint Michel is Team Réseau IXIO's second win of this Tour. As the Tour takes a welcome rest day to travel to Les Sables d'Olonne for the weekend's Act 4 of seven, the three top teams are extending clear of the chasing pack.

Between Team Réseau IXIO in third and fourth placed Golfe de Morbihan-Breizh Cola there are now 18 points. Beijaflore lead by four points over the team which was founded by Swiss round the world racer Bernard Stamm.

The unrelenting pace of the Tour may be taking effect. Beijaflore had to raise their game to make third after racing most of the Final in fourth. And Stevie Morrison and the Renaissance Services team missed the cut to make the Final for the second time. Seventh in their last qualifying race they missed the Final by one point. But taking ninth place for the day they actually move up from sixth to fifth.

Renaissance Services skipper-helm Morrison summed up, "We are not entirely sure what was going on today. We got to the first mark in second place in the first four races and really your goal is to just be in the top four at mark 1, on average, so if you are second you should convert that quite easily. We never managed to get going down the first runs and so a day which should have been very easy we made hard. As soon as it comes down to one race to qualify, normally we are the boat which gains places and today we were losing them. I think we are tired. You cannot get away from that fact. You don't notice necessarily in yourself. But at the same time our starts and our first reaches were really strong."

The international team on Pink Lady - Pays de L'Or Sud de France followed up on their third place yesterday on the coastal race by making their first Stade Nautique final on this tour. Finishing seventh they move up to 11th overall, getting ever closer to their goal of a place in the Top 10.

Rankings:

Overall Rankings

1. Team Beijaflore (FRA) - 337 pts
2. Cheminées Poujoulat (FRA) - 333 pts
3. Réseau IXIO-Toulon Provence Méditerranée -330 pts

Mixed Rankings

1. La Boulangère - 285 pts
2. Helvetia Purple by Normandy Elite Team - 249 pts
3. Sailing Arabia The Tour - 237 pts

Youth Rankings

1. Cheminées Poujoulat - 333 pts
2. Golfe du Morbihan Breizh Cola - 312 pts
3. Team Ocewood #Waterfamily - 299 pts

Amateur Rankings

1. Grégory Lemarchal-Les Sables d'Olonne - 304 pts
2. CER - Ville de Genève - 295pts
3. West Team - BBN - Ecole Navale - 249pts

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