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2009/05/17-18h48
Groupama 40, a great climb
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| iShares Cup 2009 and Groupama 40 |
| During this last day of the iShares Cup round in Venice, Groupama 40 and her crew have put up a great performance, gaining
three places in the general ranking. The Groupama team is now in 5th position.
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Gitana Extreme - LCF Rothschild Group, helmed by Yann Guichard, proved to be highly consistent, getting off to some superb
starts throughout the weekend, meaning that they dominated proceedings. They stand out on the circuit with 140 points, just
ahead of BMW Oracle Racing (James Spithill) and Renaissance (Loïck Peyron)
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A perfect day:
Setting out with strength in reserve and, more than ever, with the drive to win in their stomachs, Gildas Philippe, Tanguy
Cariou, Thierry Fouchier and Bruno Jeanjean got off to some good starts and managed to contain the throng of adversaries during
the day's various races.
During the first race, they unfurled the gennaker during the upwind stretch in order to
gain speed. This tactic enabled them to round the leeward mark in 4th position, a place which they held onto all the way to
the end. However, the best was yet to come! By getting off to a sublime start during the 2nd race, neck and neck with Gitana
Extreme - LCF Rothschild Group, Groupama 40 immediately took the head of the fleet. The crew of greens put on a great show
from beginning to end. With this race they scored their first victory of the 2009 season. They then went on to repeat the
performance during the 5th race! Very inspired over the day's seven races, the Groupama team demonstrated its savoir-faire
and got familiar with the top spots. It was certainly a good morale boost!
Tanguy Cariou, onboard tactician and head
of the sailing crew: "We got off to a good start. The two previous days, we were too impatient and too early in preparing
the start. From this point of view today, we were calmer thanks to a good assessment of our mistakes during the previous days.
By heading off with the first wave, we got free of the crowd and hence our races were easier in the sense that it was difficult
to get past us on the various tacks. This final day was a positive one and is now a true reflection of the level we're at.
We're now keen to sail at Hyères TPM where the race zone will doubtless be open on one side and will enable us to play around
a bit more."
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Round 1, Venice: General Ranking (after 17 races)1/ Gitana Extreme- LCF Rothschild Group (Yann GUICHARD) - 140 points
2/ BMW Oracle Racing (James Spithill) - 120 points
3/
Oman Sail Renaissance (Loïck Peyron) - 113 points
4/ Oman Sail Masirah (Pete Cumming) - 111 points
5/ Groupama
40 (Gildas Philippe) - 102 points
6/ BT (Nick Moloney) - 97 points
7/ Luna (Erik Maris) - 88 points
8/ Holmatro
(Carolijn Brouwer) - 84 points
9/ iShares - Shirley Robertson - 84 points
10/ Ecover - Mike Golding - 48 points
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