Tom Dolan won the second leg of the 55th edition of the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec between Gijon and Royan, ahead of Gaston Morvan and Charlotte Yven. Tip & Shaft takes a closer look at this race, in which several favourites lost out big time, with former Figaro racers Guillaume Pirouelle and Achille Nebout and meteorologist – and former Figaro racer – Dominic Vittet.
“It all came down to the first night, there weren’t any great options in this race, and once you were ahead, you had to choose the right trajectory and above all race fast.” This is how Guillaume Pirouelle sums up the second leg of the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec, which was led almost from start to finish and won by Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan), ahead of Gaston Morvan (Région Bretagne-CMB Bretagne) and Charlotte Yven (Skipper Macif 2023).
Thanks to this second leg victory – he won the first last year after Benoît Tuduri was penalised and later excluded for cheating – the Irish skipper takes the lead in the overall rankings, 53 minutes and 13 seconds ahead of Charlotte Yven and 53 minutes and 52 seconds ahead of Gaston Morvan.
“The weather conditions at the start, with stormy fronts, weren’t very well settled and the 36 skippers had to adapt,” explains Dominic Vittet. “They had to look for a front in very light conditions, from 0 to 3-4 knots. Those who did well in the first few hours took the lead in the rankings and never relinquished it.” Achille Nebout, 3rd in the Solitaire du Figaro in 2022, confirms: “All bets were off after that first night, which seemed to be very complicated. We saw boats going in all directions and the gaps opened up fairly quickly. We know that in a big squall, you have to be opportunistic and on your toes to catch the little breeze that will get you going again, which Tom Dolan did very well.”
“A race all about management”
Dominic Vittet also points out that “when there’s a north-westerly on the Spanish coast, it buffers the coast, so you have to sail further offshore, which is what Tom Dolan did. He was always half a knot or even a knot faster than his direct rival, Alexis Thomas (Wings of the Ocean), who was further inland. Alexis Loison (Groupe Réel), who was rather badly off the mark, was back in the top twelve at that point by being further offshore.”
Achille Nebout also believes that “thanks to this shift further north, Tom hit the wind a little earlier and had a better angle compared to the others.” This positioning enabled the Irish sailor to round the Sisargas Islands first and win the intermediate sprint, leaving Alexis Thomas, Gaston Morvan and Charlotte Yven behind him. The climb back up the Bay of Biscay “was a straight shot to the finish,” observes Achille Nebout. “There were far fewer strategic options, but the conditions were complicated because the wind was very unstable and there were a lot of seas, which put a lot of pressure on the sailors.” As a result, there was little change in the rankings, “but the gaps were stretched even further because there was more wind at the front of the fleet”, adds Nebout.
Dominic Vittet added: “Tom didn’t make any mistakes on this return leg, he was fast, very rigorous in his positioning and stayed upwind of his direct rivals, which enabled him to maintain his position as leader.” Guillaume Pirouelle added that the Irishman “sailed a race that was all about management, as it’s quite rare to have a stage of the Solitaire with so few changes of leader.”
Gaston Morvan solid,
Charlotte Yven’s “super coup”
Behind him, “Gaston, Charlotte and Alexis battled hard,” notes Achille Nebout, “but in the end it was Gaston who came out on top, finishing a close second and regaining the favourite status he was given before the start. He rode a very solid race because he wasn’t always at the front, particularly at the start of the stage, but he came back well.” Guillaume Pirouelle added that “despite his pilot problems (over the last 200 miles), he held up really well. He had to find solutions to rest a bit because after three days of racing, this kind of problem is never easy to deal with.”
Pirouelle also highlighted the “great performance” of Charlotte Yven, who achieved her best result ever in a Solitaire leg. “She was always in the right pack, very solid and fast”, added Achille Nebout. As for Alexis Thomas, who was always at the front on this leg, he lost two places over the final 90 miles and finished 4th. “He had a great start to the race, leading the fleet,” says Achille Nebout. “Then he had more trouble on the return leg. He stayed further south than the others. Gaston, who was further south than Alexis just after the Sisargas Islands, did his utmost to tighten up the wind and get back a little further north for the rest of the race, which Alexis didn’t do, which must have worked to his disadvantage as he had a worse angle than the others.”
The 3rd place finisher in the Solitaire 2022 also highlighted the “very fine performance” of Tom Goron (Navaleo), 11th and first rookie. “At 18 years old and for his first season, that’s pretty impressive. On the final leg, he’s going to have to battle it out with Arno Biston (Tizh Mor) for the rookie trophy, as Jules Ducelier (3rd in the first leg) lost out quite a bit by finishing 22nd.”
The bill is high
for some of the favourites
Some of the favourites also lost out on this second leg, such as the winner of the first leg, Loïs Berrehar (Skipper Macif 2022), who arrived 1hr34 after Tom Dolan, as well as Élodie Bonafous (Quéguiner-La Vie en Rose), Alexis Loison and Basile Bourgnon (Edenred), who were between 2hrs25 and almost 3hrs behind. “I can imagine that some of them are quite frustrated,” says Guillaume Pirouelle, “as there were a lot of straight tacks and few opportunities to make up ground.” Dominic Vittet agrees: “There was nothing to do! That’s what made it so hard, you had to accept the idea that things were going to start up ahead and that you had to hang on to lose as little as possible.”
However, Guillaume Pirouelle points out that “anything can still happen, as we’ve already seen stages where incredible things have happened. And these skippers know that, so they’ll be going all out on the third leg.” Dominic Vittet concludes: “Any delays can be made up if the conditions are a little tense or if there are light airs with big gaps on the crossings. They’re going to have to cross the Iroise Sea up and down, so that could open up gaps again.”
The epilogue will be played out over a 620-mile leg between Royan and La Turballe, via the south of England, starting this Sunday 8 September.
