In the Route du Rhum, the skippers in the IMOCA class now have fewer than 1000 miles left to cover. On Tuesday lunchtime, Roland Jourdain, in the lead since 3rd November, was ahead of Armel Le Cléac’h and Jean-Pierre Dick. But the race is far from over, as the fleet are about to face a tropical depression before having to deal with some unstable weather conditions as they approach Guadeloupe, which means that the race is certainly continuing.
After a short respite on Monday, the six “Northerners” experienced a difficult night, during which they sometimes remained stuck in a calm for several hours. Today (Tuesday) the pack at the front will be going through a transition zone, before some more tricky hours ahead, as they are going to have to make their way across a tropical depression in the night. This is bound to be feared by the sailors, as this weather pattern could modify the situation for the race leaders, especially as the conditions are looking particularly uncertain.
A very confused picture
“We’re going to be entering the tropical depression and we don’t really know what we’re going to find there,” explained Vincent Riou this morning (Tuesday), before adding, “We know that there isn’t much wind on the charts, but that doesn’t really mean anything. In fact it’s a very confused picture." ” We don’t really know what we’re going to have to put up with,” confirmed Christopher Pratt, when he too was contacted this morning. The sailors and their boats will once again come under a lot of pressure in this testing Route du Rhum. Marc Guillemot summed up the situation on Monday. “The Atlantic is particularly unstable this year: we shall once again be facing some more calms, headwinds, and squalls, as we make our way around the tropical depression coming up. The approaches to Guadeloupe look very difficult and everything is still to play for for each and every one of us.” We shall really see the state of play once they are on the other side of the tropical depression, but even that won’t be definitive, as the eight skippers still racing will afterwards have to deal with a huge area of calms over the French West Indies. With 1000 miles left to go to the finish, the race is far from over.
A second win for Bilou?
In this context, the strategic choices will be hugely important at the end of this race which has been full of hurdles. Some options have already been taken as they look ahead to the finish. That is why Armel Le Cléac’h decided to move off to the south on Sunday. He explained his choice during the radio link-up on Tuesday morning: "My strategy over the past few days is to get to the south of the fleet to approach the depression and I hope that this will mean that I am well placed for what lies ahead. On the day after tomorrow (Thursday – editor’s note), the race will certainly become much more a question of strategy.” On Monday evening, the skipper of Brit Air was 17 miles behind Roland Jourdain, who could do nothing but watch the leading group in the fleet getting closer, with five competitors within 100 miles of Veolia Environnement. In the rankings on Tuesday lunchtime, the situation had completely changed, as the title-holder was some 41 miles ahead of the skipper of Brit Air and his other rivals were more than 100 miles back. But to win the Route du Rhum for a second time, Roland Jourdain will have to ward off the attacks of those chasing after him right up to the final miles. One thing is certain. Michel Desjoyeaux and Arnaud Boissières, the two, who opted for a southerly route, appear to be out of the running as far as victory is concerned.
For the others, anything is still possible, as in the history of the Route du Rhum, we have already seen that it is not over until they have rounded the island and crossed the finishing line in Pointe-à-Pitre. Roland Jourdain knows that full well: in 2006, he was some 150 miles ahead of Jean Le Cam on the day before the finish, but in the end only finished 26 minutes ahead of him…
Rankings at 1040 hrs GMT on 9th November
1 - Roland Jourdain (Véolia Environnement)
2 - Armel Le Cléac'h (Brit Air), 41.1 miles behind
3 - Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec 3), 114.6 miles from the leader
4 - Vincent Riou (PRB), 115.9 miles from the leader
5 - Marc Guillemot (Safran), 145.7 miles from the leader
6 - Christopher Pratt (DCNS), 221.9 miles from the leader
7 - Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas), 399.1 miles from the leader
8 - Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia), 459.1 miles from the leader
RETIRED – Kito de Pavant (Groupe Bel)
