With just over 122 nautical miles to the finish line of the decisive third and final stage of the 2022 La Solitaire du Figaro things are looking good for race leader Tom Laperche (Région Bretagne-CMB Performance) as indeed they do for his team-mate Gaston Morvan (Région Bretagne-CMB Espoir) Laperche has just made his layline call for the finish port of Saint Nazaire and has 120 nautical miles to the line at 0800hrs French time this morning. Laperche is making between 12 and 13 knots averages in the downwind conditions and his key title rival Guillaume Pirouelle (Région Normandie) in sixth, 15.7 miles behind him.

It is still likely to go down to the final miles. Pirouelle held a lead of 14 minutes going into the stage but at these speeds he is over an hour behind. He was as close as 10 miles behind but it will now very much depend on what the wind does for the approach to the final finish line of this La Solitaire du Figaro.

Spain’s Pep Costa (Team Play to B-TERRAVIA) is holding on nicely in fifth and is with a good pack around him. Switzerland’s Nils Palmieri (TeamWork) is in fourth and has three or four miles to catch up on the fast moving Elodie Bonafous (Queguiner-La Vie En Rose) who is holding third.

Briton Alan Roberts (Seacat Services) is 13th at 29.4 miles behind the leader while Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan) is 19th

Race director Yann Chateau this morning, “It was pretty tough for the rounding of Los Farallones ahead of the long downhill run across Biscay towards Saint Nazaire. The first part of the night was especially hard with 28-32kts of wind with gusts to 35 which was hard for the racers with waves of 3.5 to 4 metres. We saw a few skippers going off course no doubt with little problems on board. Clearly as well, different sail choices between the small spi and the gennaker. This morning conditions are more reasonable with 20-25kts of wind and the sea a little more even and lower. The conditions are still hard enough with a grey sky and gusts and that is the hard bit just now the difference between the mean wind and these gusts. ETA this evening in Saint Nazaire between 1800hrs and 1900hrs.”