Special envoy to Dunkirk
If the muscles of the sails were often bulged by downwind winds during the first two stages of this 51st edition of the Solitaire du Figaro, the course, which starts this Saturday at 4 p.m. in front of Dunkirk, will no doubt rather swell the cerebral cortex of the 33 competitors still in the race, Corentin Douguet (NF Habitat) having announced his retirement for medical reasons on Friday.
From Hauts-de-France, and after 492 miles towards the finish line, located at the level of the Pierced Stone, shortly before Saint-Nazaire, the weather conditions will indeed be the keys to this new round.
Between erratic, even ethereal winds, anxiety-inducing currents and bundles of seaweed skimmed off by the appendages of their Figaro Beneteau 3, the skippers will have enough to tangle their brains on a course representing a quarter of the French metropolitan coast.
Coastal abundance where rocks grow twice a day.
With only four marks to tack, a first ahead of Dieppe, then Portsal, the Occidentale de Sein and the Goué-Vas du Four.
Thus offering large fairly free segments.
A journey which has the art of meeting the leader for the moment undisputed, Armel Le Cléac'h (Banque Populaire).
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“I like this philosophy, it leaves the game open and the choice of different routes.
This sleeve is not the longest, but it is complicated.
There will be quite a few transition phases, with quite marked changes in wind direction.
There is therefore a risk either of making new beginnings or of creating significant differences.
Everything is possible.
There is not a scenario that will favor those who are well placed in the general classification or those who are far behind.
I will therefore not take the lead and I will approach this stage as if it were a race in its own right. "
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There will be stressful times
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Armel Le Cleac'h
The winner of stage 2 knows that he will not have to trip over the gathered carpet, so upwind, from the first miles of the race, with current in his muzzle and sandbanks that can destroy their hopes. .
By trying to start in front to have more ease to manage the rest of the course.
With 37 minutes and thirty seconds ahead of his first pursuer, Xavier Macaire (Groupe Snef) and 44 over the Englishman Sam Goodchild (Leyton), Armel Le Cléac'h expects to see the attacks of the furious also wishing the dethrone.
“There will certainly be different options up to the Breton point.
For example for those who are far in the standings and who will be able to let go a little more, to be a little less conservative.
There will be stressful times, especially with medium to light winds.
I'm not taking the general classification with me so as not to think about scoring one or two opponents.
We will do the accounts in Saint-Nazaire. ”
Saint-Nazaire, where he had won the final victory to Alain Gautier for thirteen seconds in 2003. He therefore knows that his hegemony is still precarious.
The routings remained rather vague as to the duration of this stage of all the dangers, between three and four and a half days.
The big arms will certainly hang on but woe to those who have let go of the elastic.
The fall can be terrible.
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