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Interviews :

The message of Yann Le Moënner, CEO of A.S.O :

“We took over the Tour de France à la Voile at the last minute last year. This time around, with the teams of Baptiste Kern (event director) and Jean-Baptiste Durier (assistant director), we led three key projects to breath a new energy into shore activities. We worked a lot on making the race village stronger and will also offer animations on the beaches. We will also launch a small advertising convoy to be closer from the public. We are proud and happy to a high-quality fleet with Franck Cammas and Thomas Coville. They will give a hard time to Daniel Souben and the big names of the Tour de France à la Voile. The crisis is affecting everyone and I won’t lie, we hoped for even more boats. Some prestigious sailors are still fighting to be on the start line in Dunkirk. We hope for it to happen, even though, to second what everyone has been saying here, we are satisfied with the quality of the fleet as such. The Tour de France à la Voile is a major event for us. It’s our fifth sport sphere. We are investing all our energy to make the most beautiful party possible in July. See you in Dunkirk in a month.”

The message of Thomas Coville, skipper of Sodebo :

“While I am a solo sailor, I have never stopped crew racing. These two ways of navigating really help to develop my skills on the water. With Sodebo, we are happy to participate in the Tour de France à la Voile. This team adventure will allow us to compete with top level crews. Our team gathers sailors from different background : Volvo Ocean Race winners, America’s Cup experts and sailors who participated in the Olympic Games and the World Match Racing Tour. The team Sodebo has a total of 26 victories on the Tour de France à la Voile ! With the quality of the crew gathered here, our goal clearly is to compete with the leaders.”

The message of Franck Cammas, skipper of Groupama 34 :

“The Tour de France is our main objective of the season in M34. The three races we entered before the Tour’s start allowed us to get ready in the best possible conditions against top-level competitors. Nothing beats racing to train in real conditions. We were late compared to some of our competitors, especially Courrier Dunkerque – we are rookies. But our shared training sessions helped us to improve. Our team is mixing Groupama sailing team veterans, with whom we won the Volvo Ocean Race, and young sailors as efficient as they are enthusiastic. It’s a real pleasure. I’ve done the Tour several years ago, but only as a one-shot thing. To sail it all is a real challenge. With its inshore and offshore legs, it reminds us of the Volvo.
We will have to be very consistent and capable of improving from the start in Dunkirk and the finish in Marseille. In any case I’m excepting a very tight race because the teams are great.”

The message of Daniel Souben, skipper of Courrier Dunkerque 3 :

“We are delighted to race against competitors such as Cammas or Coville. They are spoiling us with a true sport challenge. It’s a great opportunity for us to have international names on the Tour. That being said, we are obviously seeking the victory ! Courrier Dunkerque 3’s core team has been the same for the past seven years and it’s paying off. We started well the beginning of the season. Cammas and Coville are pulling us up. I’m extremely motivated about this season !”

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