Le Figaro: do you confirm your desire to return to the Solitaire du Figaro 2021?
Vincent Riou
: Absolutely, I want to go back to the Solitaire.
It is out of the question for me to redo a white season without sailing like the previous one.
It was my first in thirty years.
I already wanted to do the Solitaire again last year but there was damage to the foils on Sébastien Simon's boat and suddenly I couldn't.
And I realized that I still wanted to go back to sailing, to enjoy it.
It's going to be the right one this year.
Are you looking for a partner?
I am in prospecting, I know it will not be easy but I am not desperate.
I really want to go and I will find solutions.
I am lucky to own my Figaro Bénéteau and I was able to prepare it this winter.
It is in the water, I have started the Pole Finistère offshore race program and in ten days I will be competing in the Solo Maitre CoQ in Les Sables d'Olonne to take stock of the situation.
I will not do the double transatlantic race but I will participate in the July races, the Tour de Bretagne, etc ...
"It would be pretentious to want to have results from the first time"
Vincent riou
What sporting goal do you set?
To get back in the saddle.
I know that Solitaire is a very high level and it's been almost 20 years since I set foot there again (in 2002 with a nice 4th place for its 5th participation).
So it will be a year of restarting, we will have to tame the mount.
My idea is to go back for three years and it would be pretentious to want to have results from the first.
Why are you coming back?
Because the Solitaire is a great event and I want to make up for lost time.
I left it too early having the chance to have a big boat.
And I want to sail with the new generation.
I have a lot to learn from them, from their new approach, from their culture.
I am super motivated ...
"You have to be able to chart your course, to take risks"
Vincent riou
What do you think of the route of this 52nd edition presented this Thursday?
Noises evoked a light course and in the end it was an XXL course.
It's good that we manage to keep this race alive and that we dare to offer long courses.
It's great that the game is open without too many course marks, that there is freedom.
With the new boats, the gaps can quickly be made and undone.
It's clearly over with the panurge sheep.
You have to be able to chart your course, to take risks.
And I'll tell you at the end, if it's a course for old people like me or not.
My unknown on this comeback is that I have less recovery and physique with age (49) but on the other hand I have more experience.
What is your assessment of the Vendée Globe which has just ended?
That the Vendée Globe is still as hard and ungrateful as ever.
We have done good things humanly in the team but we were not rewarded at the end (abandonment for Sébastien Simon and loss of the boat for Kevin Escoffier).
You need a good alignment of the planets to win the Vendée Globe.
And this campaign was extremely complicated because with the Covid, the teams were limited in time to develop the new machines.
Those who managed to arrive ended in agony.
It was not easy for anyone.
But that gave a great Vendée Globe and made the sail grow.
We learned a lot of things, it remains to be intelligent to know how to use it.
I won't be against going back to supporting a project in four years, but I don't set myself that goal.
For now, I want to sail and write a great story on the Solitaire du Figaro…
Read also
The Solitaire du Figaro 2021 in direct line with the Vendée Globe
