52nd La Solitaire du Figaro
Quiroga leads into The Channel, Roberts in touch in 8th
With well over half of the 490 nautical miles La Solitaire du Figaro’s Stage 2 course from Lorient to Fécamp completed by late this Monday afternoon, the leaders were negotiating the rocky North Western tip of Brittany ready to take on a much more technical, testing upwind section, tacking to windward towards the finish where the winner is anticipated early on Wednesday morning.
Pierre Quiroga (Skipper MACIF 2019), the 28-year old skipper originally from the Mediterranean who finished second on the first leg, led the fleet around the corner into the English Channel this afternoon, but his margin over Tom Laperche (Bretagne CMB Performance) was tiny – just a few hundred metres – as the pair made just over eight knots upwind. The leading five boats were within one mile of Quiroga with General Classification leader Xavier Macaire, poised in sixth 1.2 miles behind.
After a bad start on Sunday afternoon which – he admitted today – saw him next to last at the first mark, Britain’s Alan Roberts (Seacat Services) was holding a solid eighth place after having rounded the Rochebonne plateau buoy – off Les Sables d’Olonne – in 12th. Roberts has made place gains on the long, tight reach and close hauled stage up the west coast of Brittany but lost a little distance on the lead group.
