the route of the 3rd stage revealed

Special envoy to Royan

The 32 competitors still in the race were impatiently waiting this Saturday afternoon to find out what sauce they were going to be eaten during the third and last stage between Royan and Saint-Nazaire. Finally, the 700-mile course initially scheduled will be cut by around sixty miles. A strong gale announced in the western Bay of Biscay having worried Yann Château, the race director of this 53^e edition of the Solitaire du Figaro.

The latter explained the choice of configuration for this final round: “It’s not a change of course. This had been notified in the notice of race for more than six months. It responds to the constraints and problems of the conditions that can be encountered in the Bay of Biscay. Especially when approaching Cape Finistère where the South-West wind will be quite strong. This 3B course will allow us to avoid it. At the start, up to the West cardinal buoy of the Farallones Islands, the competitors will encounter fairly soft conditions, with transition zones which will not be easy to manage. Approaching these islands, with the SW front at 10-15 knots, the sea will begin to build up along the east coast of Galicia, north of Spain. Then, it will be the long cavalcade towards Saint-Nazaire which according to our calculations should last 24 hours for the best. All this with a swell of around 3m, with winds between 25 and 35 knots. Making this crossing of the gulf more technical than strategic.»

The dice will therefore be thrown tomorrow at 12 p.m. The leaders of the provisional general classification standing in 19 minutes, Guillaume Pirouelle (Normandy region), Achille Nebout (Amarris-Primeo Energie) and Tom Laperche (Brittany-CMB Performance Region), but also the rest of the pack will be able to have a great time throughout this course giving pride of place offshore for a hoped-for arrival in Loire-Atlantique on Thursday morning.

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