Pacé wants no second

Is Bertrand King Pacé becoming an ogre ? With this second in a row victory in a long distance race he appears to be in the strongest position to add a new title to his personal record.

The Nouvelle Caledonie boat seems to get stronger and stronger every day. She makes so few mistakes his opponents can hardly hope for an under achievement. Pacé has already won 6 tour de France and he seems to be on his way for another one. The america’s cup skipper knows what it takes to stay ahead. The night was quite triky because of very light winds around Belle-Ile. But Nouvelle Caledonie always keep control over Courrier Dunkerque, second of the leg and second overall. The main competitor never succeed to pass. Daniel Souben and his team still want to fight but, until today doing their best was just no enough. Even though, Bertrand Pacé doesn’t want to relax : « we just need to have a bad day to be knock out from the top position ». Obviously, he could still keep the lead, even with a bad day. But Courrier Dunkerque who won the two previous tour de France will put a real pressure up to the end . There are still a lots a milles to sail and a lots of points to gain from now on till the end of the race.
And if the weather forecast were quite a nightmare in the Atlantic for the navigators, you may bet it won’t be easier in the med. Let’s have a look at those who succed to catch the tiny pressure along this 120 milles offshore leg. Mummaduck seems to be the boat to look at. They once again had a very good start and led the fleet till the night. Considering their amateur statut, being third in Talmont is quite an achievement. In just three days the dutch boat did an impressive move on the leaderboard, they are now ranking 11. Now if you look at the main favourites, there are some loosers today. Not Ile de France who ended 8th. Oman sails recovered from a lousy situation and was 10th on the finishing line. But TPM Coych (21st today) is loosing his grasp on the podium and it is even worse for Groovederci. The american boat who finished 19th will need a spectacular recovery to be able to enter the top three. Well, they can make it : when the going gets tough, the tough get going…