Tour de France à la Voile 2003
Press release n°7

July the 13th

First win for the Swiss as the team from Nantes holds onto their lead

After a fast downwind speed race from St-Nazaire to St-Denis Oléron, the 37-Mumm 30 fleet sailed two inshore races on Sunday. Pierre Loïc Berthet's Bouygues Telecom, which shows good consistency, still leads overall ahead of yesterday¹s winners onboard Ville d'Antibes NEC. Today, as the Swiss of Ville de Genève Carrefour Prévention snatched their first victory in this Tour de France à la Voile 2003, Jimmy Pahun's Région Ile de France came back to second place overall. As for the Aussies of Southern Sun Team Australi, they don¹t seem to perform as well inshore as offshore. After scoring a brilliant 4th place in the 100-mile race to St-Denis d¹Oléron, they came in 20th in Sunday's first inshore race. Onboard Joe Fly Sailing Team, Vasco Vascotto and his crew also had a disappointing first race, coming home in 15th. In the offshore race, they had come in 9th.

The crews had most of the day to rest on Saturday as the race down to St-Denis d'Oléron was much faster than expected. The gun had fired at 22:22 on Friday night off St-Nazaire. "It was somehow unreal to start a race in the dark. With the bridge of St-Nazaire in the background, it was great. I loved it" , said Pierre Loïc Berthet, skipper of Bouygues Telecom. For the first time in a few days, it was windy. The 37-Mumm 30 fleet sailed off in a north-north-easterly breeze of 15 knots. The Aussies were leading at the top mark but soon got threatened by the trio composed of Ville d'Antibes NEC, Bouygues Telecom and Capsport. The four boats had a nail-biting race until the finish. In the end, Ville d¹Antibes NEC skippered by Marc Bouvet crossed the line just ahead of the defending champions and overall leaders onboard Bouygues Telecom. "We're very happy. We had had two bad days. We needed a good race to get back into the match" explained Dominic Vittet, navigator onboard Ville d¹Antibes NEC. "It was an intense speed race. We pushed very hard the whole time. We had tight battles with Southern Sun Team Australie, Bouygues Telecom and Capsport", added Vittet. Melbourne's boat Southern Sun team Australie, skippered by Mike Smith and Kirwan Robb, came home in fourth just behind Xavier Lecoeur's Capsort. The Italians of Joey Fly Sailing Team came in 9th. Jimmy Pahun¹s Région Ile de France had dropped from second to fourth place overall after finishing in 11th. Jimmy and his team bounced back in today¹s first inshore race. They finish in second just behind the Swiss of Ville de Genève Carrefour Prévention and therefore came back into third place overall. The Swiss did an amazing job in the first run of that first race as they managed to get into the lead after having rounded the top mark in 9th position.

Latest news: Unfortunately for the Swiss, the second race of the day was rather disappointing as they finished in 27th. It's Toulon ­Provence ­ Méditerranée- Coych that won that second race. It's still tight among the overall leaders as Ville d¹Antibes NEC came in 5th, Bouygues Telecom in 8th and Région Ile de France in 6th. The Aussies came home in 10th just ahead of the Italians.

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