La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec
Loïs Berrehar (Skipper Macif 2022) crosses first, Basile Bourgnon (Edenred) is second
French skipper Loïs Berrehar (Skipper Macif 2022) crossed the finish line in La Turballe in 1st position this Thursday at 04:07:24hrs French time. It took him 3 days 14 hours 7 minutes and 24 seconds to complete the 710-mile course of the 3rd leg of the 55th edition of La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec.
Berrehar won the first stage from Le Havre to Gijón ahead of Basile Bourgnon (EDENRED) and this morning has repeated that performance as Bourgnon crossed the line 5 minutes and 55 seconds behind in second place at 04:13:19hrs
Loïs Berrehar said on the dock: “It’s one of the rare Figaro stages that I do where we don’t stop and where we can use speed and strategy throughout. I’m so happy to win it. And Basile was great too. I’m so happy to share this with him. He deserved to win it. It was super close. We were laughing about it yesterday on the VHF. We fought until the end, honestly, it’s great! It’s an accomplishment, a lot of time, a lot of determination for moments that are rare. I was keen to win one this year, I won two. I don’t know what it will mean for the general classification but I did the job. It was nice, we saw the guys who were in control and they were guys from Port-la-Forêt so it’s cool. I fought hard on all three stages, I will have no regrets.
Basile Bourgnon (EDENRED): “I’m happy because in this 3rd year of Figaro, it’s the second stage where I’ve managed to be really comfortable from start to finish. It will almost take a 4th year. It was a stage with heavy weather a brutal stage that I liked in the end. And we really showed off our speed. I think that with my colleagues from Port-la-Forêt, we put into practice everything we learned last winter and it showed. I think I didn’t sleep for about thirty hours, which led me to do something stupid at Skerries Bank. I fell asleep just before the buoy, forgetting to wake up and I woke up on the sandbank. Luckily it was quite high tide because two miles further on, it was the coast. It’s good not to sleep, it makes you go fast but you shouldn’t do anything stupid after that. I recovered. I’m happy to have caught Gaston before the Chenal deFour and to have dropped him after. We’ll see about the general classification, but I’m happy to have had a great second stage in 2nd place. We raced together with Loïs, we didn’t really let go. Sometimes him, sometimes me. He was better on that one and I hope we’ll meet again in the future and that I’ll beat him. It’s a great last Solitaire, with a 2nd stage that corrects everything else a bit unfortunately. I’m very happy with the 1st and 3rd. It’s really what I expected after three years of Figaro and I’m happy to leave on this note. It was tough but I really got out of my comfort zone. I wanted to catch up with Loïs at all costs so I didn’t sleep the last 24 hours. I didn’t eat much either. If it’s not this time, it will be the next one. That’s what Loïs and I say to each other, a year off and we’ll see. I’m going to miss it. It’s a Class that I really like with people that I really like. They’re super tough boats that force you to get out of yourself, but if you want to win, you have to do it.”
