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När det brallar rejält vill man inte köra runt Bretagne med massa Mumm 30. Därför har man nu bestämt sig för att det blir en etapp med lastbil för Tour de France a la Voile.

For the first time ever, the boats of the Tour de France Sailing Race will have to travel on trolleys towards Lorient. The stop in Perros-Guirec Cotes d’Armor had to be cancelled due to hazardous weather conditions.

This decision was taken by the race committee, race direction and the organization so as to be able to start the races on Thursday morning in Lorient, as initially planned.

Jean Coadou, president of the race committee, announced at noon during the skippers’ briefing his decision not to start any race during the forthcoming days. Any other decision would have compromised the rest of the race, because of hard weather conditions expected for crossing the channel du Four. “The near gale warning doesn’t allow us to start a race tonight”, such was the first point of the briefing. As far as the rest is concerned, things are getting a little more complicated: “Meteo Consult forecasts a very slight improvement during the next 24 hours; the wind should be blowing around 15 knots tomorrow in the afternoon”.

The offshore leg towards Perros-Guirec Cotes d’Armor could have been sailed, but the boats would then have most likely been stuck another few days. “The competitors couldn’t have reasonably sailed past the Raz de Sein windward with winds above 25 knots. This is why we took this decision to put the boats on their trolleys, and to drive them to Lorient. Like this, we could start as of Thursday morning in Lorient, according to the initial schedule”.

The organisers of the Tour de France Sailing Race had to do this difficult choice for the first time in a thirty years time. In order not to do a disservice to the competitors, the organisation will pay for the crane that is to put the boats onto their trolleys. The race direction also wants to ensure the respect of equity during this exceptional operation: “it goes without saying that it is forbidden to make any amendment aimed at improving the performance of the boat during the transit”, says deputy-race director Jean-Michel Gandon.