The second stage of the 55th La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec started today out of Gijón, NW Spain in much the same kind of very light wind conditions that greeted the finish last Thursday. The start of the 515 nautical miles leg to Royan – at the mouth of Bordeaux’s Gironde estuary was finally delivered in no more than five knots of NW’ly winds and almost millpond like sea conditions. With tiny gaps in the overall elapsed times – around seven minutes separating the top 16 – there seems every chance these deltas will be immediately under threat tonight as very gentle conditions are set to prevail with small pockets of breeze.
This second stage of three takes the 36 boat fleet to the Isla Sisarga Grande, a natural waypoint, to the west of La Coruña, where the Intermediate Sprint time bonuses are awarded, five minutes for first, three for second and one for this. The initial challenge for all is to negotiate the effects of the rugged, coastline with its high cliffs well and the natural wind acceleration zones and lees, and the unsettled waters. Positioning for an incoming front which should arrive in the small hours of Monday morning could well shape the hierarchy for at least the first half of the leg across the Bay of Biscay.
"A lot will be at stake, especially in the first night for the one who crosses the front first at 4am on Monday morning. We know that we are going to start in very soft conditions along the Spanish coast which is never easy. I think we are going to have to be quite aggressive right away and not give too scope to the others because whoever gets away will build a real advantage. explained Basile Bourgnon (Edenred), the current leader in the provisional general classification before docking out. "This feels like the start of a Stage 1 because the deltas are so small, I do not intend to count the points yet, we will see about that for the last one. The objective is to have a clean stage and be proud of myself, like after the first. I think that the rest should follow and it will go well" Bourgnon added.
At 1800hrs this Sunday evening Jules Delpech (ORCOM) was leading with Ireland’s Tom Dolan in fourth at just a quarter of a mile behind. Spain’s Pep Costa (VSF Sports) is tenth at 0.8 miles behind.