This is confirmed, the Solitaire du Figaro leads to everything.
And especially at the heights.
The proof once again with Tom Laperche.
The winner of the 53rd edition of the Solitaire last September took the start this Sunday of The Ocean Race, the crewed round the world race with stopovers, aboard Kevin Escoffier's Holcim-PRB monohull.
One more milestone in the young career of the enthusiastic 25-year-old Breton before setting off to discover the world and the seas of the deep south, which he will one day have to challenge solo on the occasion of a future Vendée Globe.
“I'm super happy,
he told
Le Figaro
before embarking in Alicante for (at least) the first three stages (the first ending in Cape Verde).
I told myself that after the Solitaire, I would offer my services to teams, but Kevin (Escoffier) and Pascal (Bidégorry) called me before the race.
It's a great opportunity to do something else and travel.
It's an incredible race for that.
In terms of the calendar, it falls very well in the depths of winter.
It was that or winter training in Port-la-Forêt…”
Maturity and self-confidence
There is indeed no match for the son of Philippe Laperche, a dentist who competed in three Solitaires du Figaro in the 90s, and crew trainer for Laurent Bourgnon, close to Thomas Coville and Steve Ravussin.
Programmed to become a very great offshore racer, Tom has already seduced François Gabart and impressed at the helm of his trimaran Ultim SVR Lazartigue by his maturity, his calm, his freshness, his self-confidence and his mastery despite his tender age. .
And these two-thirds of the tour of the planet that he will do will allow him to continue his apprenticeship at the highest level: "
we will spend a lot of time at sea, this will allow me to accumulate experience in managing fatigue and such a project.
I will learn to go after myself.
My personal goal is to succeed in hardening myself in harsh conditions.
There will surely be extraordinary moments and others that will be really difficult.
I want to be able to pass this.
To be good at ocean racing in the years to come, it's important to have the ability to go far
”.
And especially in these southern seas, between South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Cape Horn, which make dream as much as frighten the sailors who discover them.
This will be his big premiere on the edge of the planet.
“
I have no fear for the moment, it makes you want to go and see.
When you like downwind, sliding, strong winds, you have to go sailing in the south.
It's like when you love skiing, you look for the steep slopes of the black runs
"...
I have always admired Kevin Escoffier's career, from boat developer engineer to sailor skipper
Tom Laperche
The inexperienced will be able to count on the support of Kevin Escoffier, the skipper of the multi-world trip (including two on this crewed trip), who found a boat after its dramatic sinking in the last Vendée Globe.
"
Kevin, I know him well, my father had bought a boat from his father for his first Route du rhum and I have always admired his career, from boat developer engineer to sailor skipper who has done a lot of miles on lots of different boats.
It is a beautiful evolution and an atypical course
".
For an expected rebound after the necessarily significant episode of the loss of his boat and the rescue of Jean Le Cam.
Faced with four other Vendée Globe monohulls (Paul Meilhat's Biotherm, Benjamin Dutreux's Guyot Environnement, Boris Herrmann's Team Malizia and Charlie Enright's 11th Hour), Kevin Escoffier and his four crew will naturally be aiming for victory in Cape Verde at the end of the week. then in Genoa next June.
Tom Laperche confirms: “
We hope to win, we are going for that.
We are capable of doing it, we have the boat for it.
The race being really long, it will be necessary to progress, to often question oneself.
And it's not necessarily the best team at the start that will win the race, it's the one that will have made the most progress
”.
A promising rookie
Second behind Paul Meilhat's boat this Sunday afternoon, off Alicante, the monohull Holcim-PRB welcomes a novice who is as promising as he is hungry.
A round-the-world rookie who will certainly compete with many others, but don't forget the Ultim multihull.
“
I want to continue with François (Gabart), I'm confident for the future but I'm going to concentrate on the world tour.
There are a lot of new things for me
”.
And he is also a more than interesting "
novelty
" for this world tour which has seen the greatest sailors on the planet pass since its creation in 1973.