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Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro • Leg 3

Alain Gautier wins in Dingle and takes the lead before last leg

vendredi 15 août 2003 – Redaction SSS [Source RP]

After worthy winner Alain Gautier(Foncia) took victory in the third leg in Dingle this morning, it was a bitterly disappointed Pascal Bidégorry(Région Aquitaine) who just missed out once again, at 11h23’31 BST, 23m56s later, with a fatigued Armel Le Cléach(Créaline) at 11h26"52’ just 3m21s behind, completing the podium. The rest of the top ten filed in rather slowly with Michel Desjoyeaux (Géant) around 10 minutes later, Jérémie Beyou (Delta Dore), Loick Peyron (Fujifilm), Laurent Pellecuer (Cliptol Sport), top rookie Marc Emig earning himself a fantastic 8th place, Yann Eliès (Groupe Générali Assurances) and Marc Thiercelin (Bermudes). Sam Davies (Skandia) took a fine 27th place and even finer 2nd amongst the rookies 3h40m41 seconds after the overall leader, while Stéphane Sevaux (Sarthe) completed the rookie podium.


The other woman racing, Jeanne Grégoire (AG2R) was 33rd, just behind rookie Yves Le Blevec (Rêve de Grand - Actual Intérim). Dutchman Sander Bakker (Egeria) must now have made it into port with his last position reported as 34th with 7.5miles to go at 1500 BST. Bringing up the rear of the fleet, Italian, Corrado Agusta (Sector Sport Watches) had just over 20 miles to go and Basque, Unai Basurko (Biskaia) with under 25 miles left will bring this third leg to a close in the stunning bay of Dingle.

Winner of leg 3 in La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro, Alain Gautier (Foncia) : "This victory champagne really has a very good taste… I would even say that it is better than the last time I won a Figaro leg. The 15th August is decidedly a date that follows me about ! 7 years ago, I fell in the water and was fished out again and 6 years ago I won the leg in Kinsale. I’m going to have to keep an eye on the 15 August every year ! I am really happy with this Figaro. My objective was to win at least one leg. It’s done ! I won with very little success in fact and I really feel for Bidégorry. He was the one that lead the finest race. Yesterday I was lucky to come off well in the calm and voilà ! I’m in the lead overall ! That’s twice in a row now that Pascal has come off badly, the poor old thing. Yesterday I thought he was irretrievable but in fact with the calm and the counter currents I found the flurries of wind off the land again. It was a long but interesting leg with a passage round the windward mark that was not easy at the start after which I had to try and get myself into the race again. The first night was important. I was comfortable and I didn’t make any mistakes. I think Pascal and I sailed well by making some good decisions. I’m particularly satisfied that I managed to use my tactical choices right up to the end which isn’t always easy. I have confidence in my options now and that’s very positive. I’m still in pretty good shape as I managed to sleep the night before last in about 7 or 8 half-hour stretches. On the first legs I had some problems finding the right balance under autopilot, but yesterday I was pleased that I got the boat trimmed well under reaching conditions which enabled me to shift along nicely even under pilot so I made the most of it to sleep a lot. That all paid off."

Pascal Bidégorry (Région Aquitaine) : "It’s always hellish this Figaro. I had forgotten how you can give something your all and, even with a lead of 4 miles, your efforts can be reduced to nothingness. All my work served no purpose whatsoever. I feel like I’ve lead two legs and that it has really been for nothing. Today the word fatigue is written as stupidity ! There was a single rock at the finish. I looked at my charts several times… and then boom ! At 6 knots I hit it at full force ! My boat must be completely bashed up and there’s likely to be a fair amount of work to do on it. I’ve always loved being on the water. Obviously my disappointment is huge but Alain Gautier had a very good regatta. When it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work !"

Armel Le Cléac’h (Créaline) : "It was really hard and I have rarely reached such a high level of fatigue. At the end, I began to be delirious on the boat which wasn’t a good thing at all ! I’m going to look at the general ranking now and make my little calculations. There were some mighty gaps between the island of Sein and the finish in Ireland. It was very quick and very pleasant above 8-9 knots. It’s great to see the miles dropping away like that."

The final word of this 3rd leg has to lie with Michel Desjoyeaux : 4th in the leg, 5th in the general ranking after 3 legs. "It’s a race for madmen ! We knew it was a race for people who are soft in the head but I think this year must be an exceptional vintage !"...

Kate Jennings

• Classement au temps Afflelou • Etape n° 3

– 1 GAUTIER Alain Foncia arrivé le 15/08/03 à 11:59:35 en 90h59’35’’
– 2 BIDEGORRY Pascal Région Aquitaine à 23’56’’
– 3 LE CLEAC’H Armel Créaline à 27’17’’
– 4 DESJOYEAUX Michel Géant à 36’56’’
– 5 BEYOU Jérémie Delta Dore à 39’57’’
– 6 PEYRON Loïck Fujifilm à 45’29’’
– 7 PELLECUER Laurent Cliptol Sport à 49’49’’
– 8 EMIG Marc Espoir Total Course au Large à 1h14’25’’
– 9 ELIES Yann Groupe Générali Assurances à 1h19’01’’
– 10 THIERCELIN Marc Bermudes à 2h18’35’’
– 11 DROUGLAZET Eric David Olivier à 3h03’34’’
– 12 MORVAN Gildas Cercle Vert à 3h07’37’’
– 13 GUERIN Ronan Amandine & Chérie à 3h21’16’’
– 14 CAUDRELIER Charles Bostik Findley à 3h22’23’’
– 15 TABARLY Erwan Thalès à 3h23’25’’
– 16 PETIT Benoit Défi Santé Voile à 3h24’05’’
– 17 CHIORRI Gilles 32 01 Météo Consult Groupe Prosodie à 3h24’47’’
– 18 CHABAGNY Thierry Petit Navire Le Bon Goût du Large à 3h26’25’’
– 19 PEAN Lionel Nouvel Observateur à 3h26’55’’
– 20 RIOU Gwenaël Espoir Crédit Agricole à 3h27’52’’
– 21 ESCOFFIER F.Y. Crêpes Whaou ! à 3h29’49’’
– 22 ATTANASIO Romain Port Trebeurden à 3h30’55’’
– 23 TOULORGE Alexandre Ville de Cherbourg - Crédit Mutuel à 3h33’49’’
– 24 DE PAVANT Christophe Crash Bandicoot à 3h34’15’’
– 25 GRIMONT Damien Soletanche-Bachy à 3h37’01’’
– 26 ARTAUD Christophe Petits Petons à 3h39’44’’
– 27 DAVIES Samantha Skandia à 3h40’41’’
– 28 ALFARO Amaiur Eki à 3h41’43’’
– 29 BOUGARD Patrice Kogane à 3h44’53’’
– 30 SEVAUX Stéphane Sarthe à 3h47’22’’
– 31 MOUREN Jean-Paul Marseille Entreprises à 4h08’24’’
– 32 LE BLEVEC Yves Rêve de Grand-Actual Intérim à 4h14’45’’
– 33 GREGOIRE Jeanne Skipper AG2R à 4h37’01’’

Des voiliers sont encore en course...

• Classement Général au temps Figaro

– 1 GAUTIER Alain Foncia en 240h28’57’’
– 2 LE CLEAC’H Armel Créaline à 19’00’’
– 3 BIDEGORRY Pascal Région Aquitaine à 24’17’’
– 4 ELIES Yann Groupe Générali Assurances à 1h02’53’’
– 5 DESJOYEAUX Michel Géant à 1h27’19’’
– 6 BEYOU Jérémie Delta Dore à 1h36’05’’
– 7 PELLECUER Laurent Cliptol Sport à 2h07’58’’
– 8 EMIG Marc Espoir Total Course au Large à 2h25’04’’
– 9 PEYRON Loïck Fujifilm à 2h50’56’’
– 10 THIERCELIN Marc Bermudes à 2h55’05’’
– 11 TABARLY Erwan Thalès à 4h12’45’’
– 12 DROUGLAZET Eric David Olivier à 4h16’22’’
– 13 CAUDRELIER Charles Bostik Findley à 4h24’49’’
– 14 MORVAN Gildas Cercle Vert à 4h30’42’’
– 15 ATTANASIO Romain Port Trebeurden à 4h38’00’’
– 16 PETIT Benoit Défi Santé Voile à 4h38’12’’
– 17 DE PAVANT Christophe Crash Bandicoot à 4h46’37’’
– 18 CHIORRI Gilles 32 01 Météo Consult Groupe Prosodie à 4h50’57’’
– 19 CHABAGNY Thierry Petit Navire Le Bon Goût du Large à 4h52’54’’
– 20 ESCOFFIER F.Y. Crêpes Whaou ! à 5h07’32’’
– 21 PEAN Lionel Nouvel Observateur à 5h09’47’’
– 22 GRIMONT Damien Soletanche-Bachy à 5h16’12’’
– 23 ARTAUD Christophe Petits Petons à 5h18’08’’
– 24 DAVIES Samantha Skandia à 5h36’07’’
– 25 TOULORGE Alexandre Ville de Cherbourg - Crédit Mutuel à 5h49’47’’
– 26 LE BLEVEC Yves Rêve de Grand-Actual Intérim à 5h49’59’’
– 27 SEVAUX Stéphane Sarthe à 6h17’55’’
– 28 MOUREN Jean-Paul Marseille Entreprises à 6h32’45’’
– 29 GUERIN Ronan Amandine & Chérie à 6h41’27’’
– 30 BOUGARD Patrice Kogane à 6h57’02’’
– 31 RIOU Gwenaël Espoir Crédit Agricole à 6h59’18’’
– 32 GREGOIRE Jeanne Skipper AG2R à 7h03’02’’
– 33 ALFARO Amaiur Eki à 9h36’21’’

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