With a clear lead of over five nautical miles on a course which should now be a straight line to the finish off Royan, Ireland’s Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan) will be hoping above all else that his pre-start concerns that the finish of Stage 2 may tomorrow prove near-windless, like that of Stage 1 into Gijón prove, false.
Alexis Thomas lies second
Dolan has led the 36 strong fleet of solo racers since Monday afternoon’s turn back northwards for the crossing the Bay of Biscay and this afternoon with less than 190 miles to the finish line he was quickest of the lead group and looked to have the best chance of escaping a developing ridge of high pressure. According to the latest routings by Race Direction the leaders should cross the finish line around 1600hrs Wednesday afternoon.
If the Concarneau based Irish sailor can hold on and convert his lead to a Stage 2 triumph it would be his second leg victory of his career. Lying ninth before the leg started, 5mins 31 seconds behind the leader, he should be in good shape for the third and final Stage.
Monday night was not easy for the sailors with a sloppy, leftover swell of two meters and clouds which brought big holes in the breeze as well as many puffy squalls. "The fleet has stretched out a lot because of this irregular wind and small zones of calm that were difficult to anticipate. Some sailors were caught especially the tail of the fleet this morning,” explains Amélie Juvien, Deputy Race Director.
Dolan is being chased by Alexis Thomas (Wings of the Ocean) and Gaston Morvan (Région Bretagne – CMB Performance). There is a good match going on between Alexis Loison (Groupe REEL), 10th and Basile Bourgnon (EDENRED), 11th who are 26.4 and 27.8 miles behind Dolan. Loison is fourth overall whilst Bourgnon leads the provisional general classification.
“The winds are in in again but getting to those at the front first, which explains the relatively big gaps between the leaders and the tail of the fleet. The wind should be quite irregular until tomorrow but the competitors will still continue to progress. On the other hand, there is little hope that the last ones will catch up with the leading pack," explains Amélie Juvien. According to the Deputy Race Director, “The are not that many moves left to play, just a few very small ones. The sailors will have to be vigilant about what is happening on the water in real time".
They said: Hugo Dhalenne (YCSL – Primatice – SLB Pharma): "In theory, the course is straight line direct to Royan, but in practice, we have a lot of clouds that force us to take a different route depending on the wind variations. I have 12 to 20-22 knots under gennaker and I have good guys round me like Martin Le Pape (DEMAIN) and Charlotte Yven (Skipper Macif 2023)."