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Brest stage : 9th september press release

Jeudi 10 Septembre 2009 09:26

Eric Drouglazet and Laurent Pellecuer (Luisina) double up victories in Brest


A pink spinnaker propelling a black hull widely dominated the arguments in Brest Roads this afternoon. Second after Tuesday’s third stage, Eric Drouglazet and Laurent Pellecuer steered Luisina, their Figaro Bénéteau, towards victory over the two races ran in the Finisterian breeze. They now hold the lead by a wide gap, ahead from Fred Duthil and François Lebourdais (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) and Ronan Treussart and Thibault Vauchel-Camus (Renault Arcadie).


The racing day in Brest Road held the promise for high level competition. For stressing even further the tension on stages 4 and 5 of the Tour de Bretagne à la voile, a strong north-north-easterly wind coming from the siege of the Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne invited itself on the water. Tandem Drouglazet-Pellecuer managed to impose their style on the other competitors on two windward-leeward courses, on which the yachts had to go forth and back in the wind stream, set between the Ile Ronde and the commercial harbor.

« We took some good start, we are quite fast. When the boat is in the pack, we blast them with our speed. » In a few words, « Droug » presents the reasons for his double victory. «There are championship where everything goes fine and others where everything goes wrong. Here, everything goes great!! » Luisina’s skipper is now in the lead of the general ranking. Only two points have added up to his score since the fleet left Saint Malo. In the meantime, the other competitors have only managed to perform places among the first five at the best.

So, we have Drouglazet, the Breton originally from the Pays Basque and Laurent Pellecuer from Montpellier in good position prior to the start of the 6th stage, which will be the longest for the Tour between Brest and Piriac-Sur-Mer in Loire-Atlantique. The start signal will be given by 9.30AM this Thursday. «We know we can win the next stage », adds the confident Mediterranean. « We are quite confident in our potential. We need to remain within the first ten in each stage... »

Second, 12 points from the leaders now, Bretons Fred Duthil and François Lebourdais (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), like Ronan Treussart and Thibault Vauchel-Camus (Renault Arcadie) sailed well this Wednesday. Always around the 5th place, both crews progress in the ranking. « We are third overall ? Now, that’s good ! » learns Ronan Treussart reaching the pontoon. Good news that hide a bitter one, since Renault Arcadie’s skipper hurt his shoulder on a maneuver. « We are quite good on starts, and we do some quite fine reaching legs. What we need now is keep up with the rhythm when before the wind » stresses Thibaut Vauchel-Camus.

A rythm the first two of the temporary ranking have managed to keep over the two courses. They are now the main adversaries for the men from Luisina. « We still have two more legs. Everything is possible » warns Fred Duthil. « We can win a place, just as we can loose one on the general ranking » supplements François Lebourdais. « But Eric Drouglazet is not on for sailing bad! » finishes the one who is familiar with the podiums of the One-handed-Figaro races.

« When we see how the distribution went, and how fast on ecan loose seven points on a start, anything can still happen »adds Sébastien Josse, crewing with Thomas Rouxel on Défi Mousquetaire. Both men, having been penalized between Perros Guirec and Brest, are now fourth in the ranking, one point from the podium, and another point ahead from Nicolas Lunven and Jean Le Cam (CGPI).

On the rookies’ side, Fabien Delahaye and Paul Meilhat, 11th and 15th on both races of the day maintain a fair advance.. Port de Caen Ouistreham is 9th overall, four seats away from Joseph Brault and Antoine Koch (Samsung Mobile).

There are two more stages before the final arrival, this Saturday, in La Trinité sur mer. Start for the penultimate will be given at 9.30AM in Brest Roads. To make sure that the arrival will take place in Piriac-sur-Mer on Friday morning, the course was lengthened a bit. Competitors will discover a one hundred and seventeen nautical miles course. The new course includes a chorts by pass off the shores of Saint Nazaire. « It’s going to be 46 miles with the spinnaker, and 96 with the genoa » indicates Fred Rivet, crewman of Jean-Pierre Nicole on Gavottes. « But it’s still going to go pretty fast! »


They said... in Brest

Eric Drouglazet – winner of both races on Luisina : « We took the lead on two starts. With Laurent, we are really set. We took some good start, we are quite fast. When the boat is in the pack, we blast them with our speed. There are championship where everything goes fine and others where everything goes wrong. Here, everything goes great! I have been sailing in Brest for seven years. Steering a yellow half-tonner, we harvested everything in here! Tempers are not to taken into account when you are a professional. I don’t have any pressure regarding the future. When we’ll be in La Trinité-sur-Mer is when thing will happen for me… Not before that! There are two more stages to go. It’s no time for thinking about the general ranking. We’ll take stages one at a time. » 

Laurent Pellecuer – winner of both races on Luisina with Eric Drouglazet : « Saling double-handed makes for something else happening. I am in charge of the maneuvers onboard. The Figaro Race is different, I don’t have a guy on my back all the time ! In a crew, we take the best of each other. We can that we can win this next stage. We are confident in our potential. We need to be among the first ten in each course… »


Eric Peron – 7th - Skipper Macif - with Gérald Veniard : " On the first race, the start wasn’t easy, and we had to come back place after place for ending 5th. On the second race, we took the starting lead, and on the second leg, we made a small mistake and four boats came back, but we took three of them back to finish second! Gérald and I have never sailed together, even though we have prepared the season together. We were quite complementing each other, and it’s worked pretty well. In points, we are closing with the leading competitors, which is rather pretty good. "


François Lebourdais – 2nd onr Bbox Bouygues Telecom with Fred Duthil : « We can still loose or win a place in the overall ranking. We end third and fifth today, making it an average 5th, which is still good! »


Ronan Treussart – 3rd - Renault Arcadie - with Thibaut Vauchel-Camus : "We sailed well today, it’s a treat. Our objective was to do some clean legs, without making mistakes. I hurt myself a bit, but it’s not a big deal (NdR : dislocated shoulder). On the first leg, we were kind of the only ones heading to the left on the racing area, and we passed the first mark ahead. In the second stage, we hoisted and brought back the spinnaker with a great timing. Thibault and I have never sailed together, and it’s Thibault’s first time sailing a Figaro.Outside from the sailing, we meet quite often, we cycle together. He’s got a huge winning history on Formula 18. He has his own vision of the Figaro, and I have mine. He brings some fresh blood, it’s interesting. We both have fun, and it’s great. "


Andy Greenwood – 33rd - Sonic Boom II – with Simon Brady : "We ripped our mainsail. That’s disappointing because it was really great. We were having a lot of fun with the wind, but there we are… We’d better have our sail fixed for tomorrow’s course! "


Louis-Maurice Tannyères – 32nd - Marine Pool - with Hugues Bousquet : "We came back to shore earlier for we missed a mark on the second race. The race is fun, we enjoy ourselves. Yesterday was good too. Sailing in the mist was impressive yes. It was my first time sailing in such a mist for that long. Sailing the Tour de Bretagne helps me navigate further in the season. It’s with a friend, it’s really nice. We know each other quite well. We are having fun.We had lenever set sail on the Atlantic, it’s a good experience with all these rocks… ! "

Fred Rivet – 14th - Gavottes - with Jean-Pierre Nicol : « We’ll set sail off the wind and it’s going to be reaching and even finish close hauled. But it’s still going to be fast ! We expect beating to windward for the finish. It’s a genoa stage. We’ll do 46 miles of spinnaker and 96 miles of genoa.»


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